***************************************************************** 10/08/04 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 12.241 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 [NYTr] Brit Minister Apologizes for Skewing Iraq Intel 2 [smygo] Not everybody lied about Iraq's WMD - Green Left Weekly 3 BBC: Ministers 'sorry' for Iraq error 4 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Yet another blow to war's justification 5 Japan Times: Japan's support of U.S. backed despite lack of WMD 6 UK Independent: How 1,200 inspectors failed to find WMD 7 Xinhuanet: Resumption of nuke issue talks depends on US: DPRK 8 JoongAng Daily: No more talks until U.S. backs off, North says 9 Korea Times: Roh Confident of ASEM Leverage in NK Nuke Issue 10 Korea Herald: South Korea, China hold summit talks 11 US: [NYTr] Nukes: John Kerry Isn't as Dangerous 12 US: Las Vegas RJ: SLAIN SENATOR'S SON: Environment under attack, Ken 13 US: Public Citizen Fiscal Irresponsibility: Corporate Tax Bill A Hav 14 US: Arizona Republic: Nuclear threats should anger us 15 US: Las Vegas RJ: Energy tax credit inches ahead 16 [NYTr] Israeli Communist Leader Against Nuclear Weapons 17 BBC: US plutonium reaches French plant 18 Bulletin Wire: Canada's missile defense fight NUCLEAR REACTORS 19 US: JS Online: Commerce secretary says oil prices will drop, advocat 20 Bellona: Bellona's fourth report on nuclear Russia 21 US: San Luis Obispo Tribune: Biz Buzz: $100 million Diablo contract 22 TheStar.com - Editorial: Enticing power deal 23 Mos News: Russia’s Gazprom Seeks to Take Over Key Nuclear Company fi 24 US: Pantagraph.com Activist: Fight nuclear power 25 US: NRC: Sunshine Act Meeting NUCLEAR SAFETY 26 [NYTr] Cancer Patients Win Victory in French Nuke Test Case 27 US: [DU-WATCH] Supporting the truth - new coalition launches 28 US: Idaho Statesman: Fallout testimony set for Nov. 6 29 US: Chicago Sun-Times: Environmentalists slam plan to drop radium li 30 asahi.com: Nuclear Fallout NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 31 [NYTr] US Plutonium Cargo Sparks anti-Nuke Fury in France 32 US: deseret news: Utah's nuclear waste ploy fails 33 Las Vegas SUN: Majority strongly opposed to Yucca 34 Las Vegas SUN: Emergency funds sought for state's fight against Yucc 35 US: Las Vegas SUN: RFK Jr. says nuke waste should stay at power plan 36 US: L.A. Daily News: Perchlorate spread halts Soil n Whittaker-Bermi 37 US: Lahontan Valley News: Forum outlines Yucca Mountain shipment ris 38 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Legislative bid to bar N-waste in Utah fails 39 NRC: NRC Sets Schedule for Review of USEC Application; Offers Opport 40 Pahrump Valley Times: Kerry vows to shut down Yucca effort 41 AU ABC: Major parties silent on Kakadu waste storage » 42 AU ABC: Burke slams Labor on radioactive waste 43 Pahrump Valley Times: Yucca budget on hold until after elections 44 Las Vegas SUN: Emergency funds sought for Nevada's fight against 45 US: Las Vegas RJ: Texas OK sought for waste NUCLEAR WEAPONS US DEPT. OF ENERGY 46 Tri-City Herald: River corridor cleanup bids submitted OTHER NUCLEAR 47 [du-list] DU in the news - 9th Oct 04 48 Fwd: Air Force pursuing antimatter weapons / Program was touted 49 [DU-WATCH] Articles on depleted uranium 50 DAWN: N-seawater suggested for desalination - ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 [NYTr] Brit Minister Apologizes for Skewing Iraq Intel Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 13:14:08 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com British Minister Apologizes for Manipulating Information on Iraq London, 8 Oct (Prensa Latina) British Trade Minister, Patricia Hewitt, has apologized for the mistakes made by her government when manipulating intelligence service information on Iraq. Hewitt told the British Broadcasting Corporation that she regretted at most of the mistakes Prime Minister Anthony Blair made referring to the alleged existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. However, she did not admit her country's mistake when joining the unilateral invasion against Iraq, in spite of being officially proven that Baghdad did not have such weapons. The local press urged the head of government to apologize for joining the war against Iraq with the false excuse of seizing prohibited weapons that were never found. Pressures on Blair increased after a US supervision commission announced last Wednesday that Iraq had no chemical or biological weapons, nor signs of having developed nuclear arms when the military aggression began. sus/ajs/to Copyright (c) 2004 Prensa Latina, SA. All rights reserved. * Search the NYTr Archives at: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web, visit: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 2 [smygo] Not everybody lied about Iraq's WMD - Green Left Weekly Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2004 00:27:54 -0500 (CDT) UNITED STATES: `We have Iraq on the radar screen' . Scott Ritter, an UNSCOM weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, has backed Iraq's claim. Under the most stringent on-site ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2001/475/475p19.htm IRAQ: US war drive `built on a bed of lies' . One key expert who was excluded from the hearings was Scott Ritter, who as senior UNSCOM weapons inspector in Iraq until 1998 personally led the inspections ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2002/504/504p12.htm IRAQ: A war based on lies . They have read the evidence of Scott Ritter, who as senior United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq for seven years, is uniquely placed to assess how much of a ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2002/507/507p15.htm COVER STORY: Bush's Iraq war threat based on lies . According to Scott Ritter, who as head weapons inspector until 1998 led the inspections and the subsequent destruction of what was found, 90-95% of Iraq's ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2002/511/511p12.htm IRAQ: How George Bush lied . However, former top UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter stated in a June 2000 article in Arms Control Today, Through its inspection activities, UNSCOM [the ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/524/524p12.htm IRAQ: `Star witness' told US that weapons were totally destroyed . wrote. A military aide who defected with Kamel ... backed Kamel's assertions about the destruction of WMD stocks. These statements ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/528/528p13b.htm IRAQ: A war based on US lies . UN inspectors have confirmed that if Iraq possesses any weapons of mass destruction (WMD), they are merely the forgotten legacy of its past weapons programs. ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/531/531p12.htm IRAQ: How Bush, Howard and Blair lied about WMD. BY ROHAN PEARCE. ... Kamal's testimony was repeatedly cited as evidence of the extent of Iraq's WMD programs. ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/541/541p14.htm UNITED STATES: How the media spread Bush's WMD lies . Duelfer admitted he was a committed proponent of regime change whether Husseon was harbouring illegal weapons or not (Endgame, Scott Ritter): I think it ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/550/550p14.htm ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/2bSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: smygo-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 3 BBC: Ministers 'sorry' for Iraq error Last Updated: Friday, 8 October, 2004 [Patricia Hewitt] Ms Hewitt stood by the decision to go into Iraq Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt has made the government's first direct apology for using inaccurate intelligence to justify the Iraq war. Appearing on BBC One's Question Time, Ms Hewitt said she was speaking on behalf of the entire Cabinet. "All of us who were involved in making an incredibly difficult decision are very sorry and do apologise for the fact that that information was wrong." But she added: "I don't think we were wrong to go in." Ms Hewitt's unexpect intervention might appease some critics BBC political correspondent James Hardy Watch Hewitt's apology Question Time website [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/] Ms Hewitt was responding to members of the audience who challenged her comment that Prime Minister Tony Blair had already apologised for the inaccuracy of the intelligence. At Labour's annual conference last week, Mr Blair said: "I can apologise for the information that turned out to be wrong, but I can't, sincerely at least, apologise for removing Saddam." Ms Hewitt told Question Time: "What we said at the time and in the dossier about the stockpiles of weapons was wrong and we've apologised for that." But one audience member shouted out: "You haven't". Another woman said of Mr Blair's conference comment: "That is saying 'I'm able to apologise but I'm not actually apologising'." Conservative policy co-ordinator David Cameron, who was on the Question Time panel, said it was "seriously refreshing" that Ms Hewitt used "the S- word". "They are apologising for the wrong thing," he told BBC Radio 4's Today. "Yes, the information about WMDs was wrong... What the apology is required for is the way in which the information was presented to Parliament." 'Whole truth' Mr Blair had told MPs the information was "extensive, detailed and authoritative", said Mr Cameron, but the Butler report into the intelligence suggested it was "sporadic and patchy". What had been needed in such a serious situation was "the whole truth and nothing but the truth," Mr Cameron added. Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell echoed Mr Cameron's comments. "It is not the intelligence for which we need an apology but the way in which it was used," he said. "Patricia Hewitt may have said 'sorry' but the only apology that would count would be from the prime minister acknowledging that the government took us to war on a flawed prospectus." 'False premise' On Thursday, the Iraq Survey Group released a report saying it had found no evidence Saddam Hussein had chemical, biological or nuclear weapons when Iraq was invaded. But Mr Blair highlighted its finding that Saddam hoped to revive a WMD programme once sanctions were lifted. BBC political correspondent James Hardy said the prime minister's conference statement had annoyed many Labour activists. He said: "Ms Hewitt's unexpected intervention might appease some critics, others will say it's not an apology for the intelligence that they want, but an apology for the war." A Downing Street spokesman denied that Ms Hewitt had gone further in her apology than Mr Blair. Commons statement Speaking during a trip to Ethiopia, he said the report showed Saddam "never had any intention of complying with UN resolutions" and was "doing his best" to get around UN sanctions. He added: "And just as I have had to accept that the evidence now is that there were not stockpiles of actual weapons ready to be deployed, I hope others have the honesty to accept that the report also shows that sanctions weren't working." The Liberal Democrats have called on Mr Blair to make a Commons statement on the ISG report, while the Tories say it shows the prime minister has not been honest. Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said: "The prime minister must come to the House of Commons and make a full statement as a matter of urgency to explain why this country went to war on a false premise." Conservative leader Michael Howard said: "I don't think he [Mr Blair] told the truth about the intelligence he received." ***************************************************************** 4 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Yet another blow to war's justification LAS VEGAS SUN The only really surprising aspect of the report by Charles Duelfer, the United States' chief weapons inspector in Iraq, is that the Republican leadership in Congress allowed it to be released before the election. The report, released Wednesday, concludes definitively that the Bush administration's pivotal reason for invading Iraq -- because Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction -- had no basis in fact. President Bush's assertions on this point began to unravel even before the invasion, when U.N. teams of weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei announced that Saddam had no WMD. Further unraveling occurred shortly after the fall of Baghdad. Weeks went by and American forces came up empty-handed in their search for chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. The United States and England then put together a force of 1,700 weapons experts, known as the Iraq Survey Group, and scoured the country. Still nothing. On Jan. 23 of this year, the head of the group, David Kay, resigned in discouragement. He predicted then that no weapons would ever be found. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he lamented the faulty U.S. intelligence that Bush used to justify the war. "We were all wrong and that is most disturbing," he testified. Duelfer, a special adviser to the director of the CIA, was named by then-CIA Director George Tenet as Kay's replacement. He continued the work and produced the three-volume, 918-page report that was released Wednesday. The report is solid documentation that Saddam Hussein represented no external threat whatsoever. Any WMD that Iraq had were destroyed after the 1991 Persian Gulf War and no new programs were under way to again produce or stockpile such weapons, the report concluded. The report does infer that Saddam wanted U.S. sanctions lifted so that he could again acquire WMD, although it acknowledges no written strategy for such a course could be found. But Bush was saying, with relentless and reckless certainty, that Saddam in fact had the weapons now and was a threat to use them against the free world. Bush and his senior staff also alleged Saddam had a working relationship with al-Qaida, and that hasn't panned out either. An inquiry is under way to determine how the U.S. intelligence services could have provided Bush with so much faulty speculation about Iraq. We believe the American people should begin another line of inquiry: Why was Bush so inclined to believe the intelligence services when there was no proof of anything they were saying? ***************************************************************** 5 Japan Times: Japan's support of U.S. backed despite lack of WMD Friday, October 8, 2004 Hosoda defends war in Iraq By REIJI YOSHIDA Staff writer The government maintains that it had made the right decision to support the U.S.-led war against Iraq, despite the conclusion of the U.S. chief weapon inspector that there were no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction there, the chief Cabinet secretary said Thursday. Hiroyuki Hosoda was responding to a report released Wednesday by Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, who concluded that Iraq did not have WMD as the U.S. claimed at the start of its pre-emptive war with Iraq in March 2003. "If we had left the matter unattended, it could have developed into a grave threat in terms of nonproliferation of nuclear (arms) and weapons of mass destruction," the top government spokesman told a news conference. "The U.S. government has taken a position that this report does not deny the legitimacy of the war. So have we." He said Japan has supported the war not because of the U.S. allegations that Iraq possessed WMD, but due to U.N. resolutions that Tokyo believes have justified the use of force against Iraq. Hosoda said Iraq was obligated to prove it did not have WMD, and this requirement was supported by U.N. resolutions. The government is expected to face tough questions on its position from opposition lawmakers at an extraordinary Diet session that begins Tuesday. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has cited the threat of Iraq's possession of WMD as a major reason for Japan's support of the war, while the opposition camp has strongly opposed Koizumi's decision. Public opinion is sharply split on the issue. The Japan Times: Oct. 8, 2004 (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 6 UK Independent: How 1,200 inspectors failed to find WMD By Helen Kinsella 07 October 2004 Weeks into the invasion of Iraq, as the Bush administration panicked over its failure to find any weapons of mass destruction, the Iraq Survey Group was hastily assembled. It was headed by the controversial and outspoken CIA adviser David Kay and later by Charles Duelfer, who told journalists he was convinced of a link between Saddam Hussein and the 11 September attacks. The ISG, manned by 1,200 intelligence officers and weapons experts mostly from the US and Britain, spent six months searching for WMD and issued its interim report a year ago. The best it could come up with was that Saddam Hussein's regime was engaged in "WMD-related programme activities" but had no actual chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. But this proved a great embarrassment for Washington and London. The British Government, in particular, placed heavy emphasis on intelligence indicating Iraq had WMD as a primary justification for the invasion. Then in January Mr Kay, resigned, saying that he believed WMD would not be found in Iraq. He told the Senate Armed Services Committee: "We were all wrong and that is most disturbing." Mr Duelfer has said the chances of finding WMD in Iraq are "close to nil". The ISG continued the work of UN inspectors, led by Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, sent by the UN Security Council to search for illegal weapons before the conflict. After Saddam's capture, Mr Blix played down suggestions that he would reveal the whereabouts of illegal weapons stockpiles. "I doubt he will reveal any WMD, because I think both the UN inspectors and the American inspectors have come to the conclusion that there aren't any. He might be able to reveal when they were done away with. I am inclined to think it was early in 1991 or 1992." UK Independent Ltd. ***************************************************************** 7 Xinhuanet: Resumption of nuke issue talks depends on US: DPRK www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2004-10-08 18:00:28 PYONGYANG, Oct. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Friday that the six-party talks on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula could be resumed right now if the United states changes its hostile policy toward the country. "A prospect of settling the nuclear issue entirely depends on the US switchover in its hostile policy toward the DPRK," said a spokesman for the DPRK's Foreign Ministry. "It is the consistent stand of the DPRK government to seek a solution to the complicated and sensitive nuclear issue through bilateral negotiations and this stand still remains unchanged," the spokesman said. "But if the US administration does not make such a switchover it can never expect any change in the DPRK's stand toward the issue." The spokesman said the Bush administration did not come out to the six-party talks with a willingness to solve the issue from theoutset. "They used the talks as a leverage to force the DPRK to stand trial over the nuclear issue, bring collective pressure upon it tobring it to its knees and secure a pretext to attack it by force just as it invaded Iraq." The spokesman said the DPRK does not care who becomes president in the United States and its only concern is what kind of Korea policy the future administration would carry out. Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 JoongAng Daily: No more talks until U.S. backs off, North says [http://joongangdaily.joins.com] Octorber 9, 2004 KST 12:09 (GMT+9) Claiming the Bush administration has been using the issue of North Korea to gain voter support in next month's presidential election, Pyeongyang said yesterday that it would not attend any more sessions of the six-nation talks on the North's nuclear arms programs unless Washington drops its hostile policies. A spokesman from the North's Foreign Ministry issued a statement through the official Korea Central News Agency to "clarify" Pyeongyang's position on six-party talks and the nuclear issue. "It is the consistent stand of the DPRK government to seek a solution to the complicated and sensitive nuclear issue through bilateral negotiations," the statement said. DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Since North Korea's clandestine nuclear arms program was disclosed in October 2002, the Bush administration has been refusing to talk directly with the North. Diplomats from Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and Moscow have joined the six-nation talks along with officials from Washington and Pyeonyang, but little progress has been made. The fourth round of the talks were scheduled to take place last month, but North Korea refused to attend. In its statement, Pyeongyang accused "the Bush group of trying to mislead the public opinion in a bid to shift the blame for the delay of the solution to the nuclear issue between the two countries including the resumption of the six-party talks on to the DPRK and garner voters' support with the presidential election at hand." The statement continued "any progress in the six-party talks and a prospect of settling the nuclear issue entirely depend on the U.S. switchover in its hostile policy toward the DPRK." Repeating earlier remarks by Han Song-ryol, North Korea's deputy head of its UN mission, the statement said, "DPRK does not care who becomes president in the U.S., and its only concern is what kind of Korea policy the future administration would shape." The statement, however, did not define what the U.S. hostile policy is. For years, North Korea has been complaining about U.S. economic sanction against the country and the labeling of North Korea as a member of the "axis of evil," along with Iraq and Iran. by Ser Myo-ja myoja@joongang.co.kr> 2004.10.08 [http://joongangdaily.joins.com/faq.html] ***************************************************************** 9 Korea Times: Roh Confident of ASEM Leverage in NK Nuke Issue Hankooki.com > The Korea Times ASEM Calls for Early Resumption of 6-Way Talks By Shim Jae-yun Korea Times Correspondent HANOI - The 5th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) will wrap up its session today, adopting a chairman's statement on various international and regional issues, including the impasse over North Korea's nuclear programs. According to a draft of the statement obtained here, leaders taking part in the session will call for immediate resumption of the 6-way talks to help find a peaceful solution to the North Korean nuclear issue. ``The leaders will express strong support for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula through a peaceful solution and the six-party talks process,'' according to the draft. The leaders will encourage the relevant parties to continue to take coordinated steps to address the nuclear issue and address all related concerns, it said. They will support the continued dialogue and cooperation between South and North Korea, which would in turn help promote peace and mutual prosperity on the Korean peninsula. President Roh Moo-hyun on Friday called for a reform in how the United Nations are operated in order to strengthen its regional representation. ``It is time to carry out a reform of the United Nations in that it is the most influential multilateral organization and there has been a rapid increase in the number of member nations,'' Roh said during the first summit meeting of the 5th Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM), which opened here Friday. Roh's statement drew attention as it came amid moves by some nations such as Japan to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council. He stressed the need for ASEM member nations to join forces in an attempt to fight against the spreading threat of terrorism. The summit meeting was attended by 38 heads of state from Asia and Europe. The opening ceremony was held at Vietnam's parliamentary building. Participants engaged in in-depth discussions over various pending issues like the role of the United Nations, global terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the spread of infectious diseases. They also haggled over the human rights and democracy situation in military-ruled Myanmar, including whether to put the issue on the chair's statement to be issued at the end of the session today. In view of the growing need to tackle rapid change in the global economy, Roh encouraged the establishment of free trade agreements among member nations, saying ASEM member nations have mutually-compensating economic structures. He proposed a new project designed to cope with possible cyber-terror and joint efforts to address skyrocketing oil prices. Roh had a summit meeting with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and plans to meet with heads of state and government officials from Europe today to discuss issues of mutual interest, including means to expand bilateral economic relations and to settle the North Korean nuclear impasse. Late on Thursday, Roh met with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao at the Daewoo Hotel to discuss issues pertaining to Koguryo, an ancient Korean kingdom, and the North Korean nuclear issue. jayshim@koreatimes.co.kr 10-08-2004 16:11 ***************************************************************** 10 Korea Herald: South Korea, China hold summit talks 2004.10.08 President Roh Moo-hyun and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao set a summit last night here on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Europe Meeting to discuss issues of mutual interest. The unexpected meeting, starting at 11:30 p.m., came at the request of the Chinese leader at 6:30 p.m. ¡°They don¡¯t have the specific agenda for the meeting. The meeting was arranged just because they stay on the same floor of the same hotel,¡± Yonhap News Agency quoted a presidential spokesman as saying. Foreign Minister Ban Kimoon, National Security Adviser Kwon Jin-ho and Foreign Affairs Adviser Chung Woo-sung accompanied Roh to the meeting. Leaders of the 39 member states of the ASEM plan to urge a peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear crisis and more six-party talks to address international concerns over the North¡¯s nuclear weapons ambitions. According to a draft of the chairman¡¯s statement which is expected to be adopted at the end of the two-day biennial ASEM Saturday, the Asian and European leaders will ¡°express support for peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue and early resumption of the sixparty nuclear talks.¡± President Roh is among the approximately 1,000 national leaders and other delegates attending the Hanoi summit. The draft statement, obtained here, also calls for Asian and European countries to join forces to counter terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. ASEM leaders will also adopt separate declarations at the end of the summit sessions on Asia - Europe economic cooperation and the issue of cultural diversity, according to Seoul officials. The two-day ASEM consists of three summit sessions on political, economic and cultural issues. A draft declaration on economic partnership urges member states to make efforts to upgrade the Asia-Europe economic relationship to a more comprehensive and future-oriented one, with a focus on maximizing synergy between the two continents. ***************************************************************** 11 [NYTr] Nukes: John Kerry Isn't as Dangerous Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 23:36:29 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by Doctress Neutopia - Oct 3, 2004 John Kerry Isn't As Dangerous October 2, 2004 John Kerry will do more to end nuclear proliferation than George Bush who is moving us closer to nuclear holocaust. Stopping nuclear proliferation is the first step in the direction of world peace. John Kerry is certainly correct to say that Bush is sending mixed messages. With regards to Iran's nuclear power program, Bush says that he has been working with other nations to send the message to the mullahs "that if you expect to be part of the world of nations, get rid of your nuclear programs." But a few minutes later in the debate, he says that the way to protect the USA is to implement a missile defense system and to continue research and development of a new generation of nuclear weapons. Kerry responds by saying, "We're telling other people you can't have nuclear weapons but we're pursuing a new nuclear weapons that we might even contemplate using. Not this president. I'm going to shut that program down. And we're going to make it clear to the world we're serious about containing nuclear proliferation. And we're going to get the job of containing all of that nuclear material in Russia done in four years. And we're going to build the strongest international network to prevent nuclear proliferation." Wouldn't the world be safer without nuclear power, waste, and weapons anywhere on the Earth? And wouldn't the world be richer if it wasn't spending billions developing "mini," "micro" and "tiny" nuclear bombs and bunker busters designed to be used on non-nuclear, third world countries such as Lebanon, Iran, Syria? Since 1985, the US has spent $90 billion on the missile defense system. The USA could stop the insanity of producing new weapons of mass destruction and become part of the "world of nations?" Nuclear abolition is a must for the 21st Century. The only way to make the world free of the fear of nuclear holocaust is to make using nuclear weapons the ultimate crime against humanity. It is an ultimate crime because it effects not only one generation and all the plants and animals that get poisoned by the release of deadly radiation, but generations to come through genetic mutations and birth defects. Seventeen million Iraqis have been exposed tons of depleted uranium, a component of toxic nuclear waste, during the "Operation Iraqi Freedom." DU war zones will remain contaminated for 4.5 billion years. This isn't a crime? It certainly doesn't create a free society, but a sick and dying society. The United Nations classified DU munitions illegal because they are poisonous weapons of mass destruction that are intended to cause unnecessary suffering. To use them breaks all international laws, treaties, and conventions. So, is it any wonder why Bush didn't support the United States becoming a member of the International Criminal Court? Bush stated that the reason why he didn't join was to protect American troops and diplomats who could be put up for trial. Of course they could, if they were committing war crimes. It doesn't take much imagination to see the International Criminal Court organizing a world inspection system to monitor every nuclear nation-state to see that it follows the path of nuclear abolition. The United States as well as the other nuclear nations-or terrorist organizations-- would have to disarm, as well as decommission its nuclear power plants, or be arrested for crimes against humanity, if they refused to follow the demands of disarmament. We reside on a small planet with fragile ecosystems that is interdependent. Neither national borders nor missile defense systems are protection against living in an unjust society of extreme poverty and extreme wealth that breeds hatred, desperation, terrorism, and war. The International Criminal Court could be a vital step in achieving global justice that is essential to create a lasting and true world peace. Doctress Neutopia aka Libby Hubbard, Ed.D Tucson, AZ doctress @ lovolution.net [Doctress Neutopia is a futurist and artist living in Tucson, AZ. She has been studying the problem of nuclear waste, power, and weapons since becoming aware of our dire situation while a student at Mount Vernon College in Washington, DC in the '70s.] * Search the NYTr Archives at: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web, visit: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 12 Las Vegas RJ: SLAIN SENATOR'S SON: Environment under attack, Kennedy says Friday, October 08, 2004 Bush track record on water, air quality criticized By KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL Robert F. Kennedy Jr. discusses his book, "Crimes Against Nature," during an interview Thursday at the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Photo by K.M. Cannon. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came to Las Vegas on Thursday to bash President Bush's environmental track record, "not because he's a Republican," but because Kennedy believes the president has manipulated laws that protect land, air and water and America's quality of life. "It's a stealth attack," Kennedy, 50, said about what he claims are some 400 rollbacks that Bush and his Cabinet have made to provisions in the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Gutting one rule in the Clean Air Act known as "new source review" allows coal-fired power plants to belch unhealthful levels of mercury, particulates and ozone-forming compounds into the air, Kennedy said. He cited Bush's favoritism to what he said are some of the nation's biggest polluters who created "the mess in Texas" while Bush was governor there and while the state fell to the bottom rungs of environmental quality. "The Mess in Texas" is a chapter in Kennedy's new book, "Crimes Against Nature -- How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy." Kennedy, whose father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Los Angeles during the 1968 presidential campaign, discussed his book in an interview at the Review-Journal several hours before a speech on the same topic Thursday night at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "Let me say this, the book is not a partisan book. I've been careful to be nonpartisan and bipartisan during my 20 years as an environmental advocate," Kennedy said. He admitted, however, that "it's a political book. I want to see President Bush defeated, but it's not because he's a Republican. I don't think there is any such thing as Republican children and Democratic children. "My experience is the Republicans care as much about the environment as the Democrats do," Kennedy said adding, "Now the worst thing that can happen is that it becomes a partisan, political issue. ... But you can't talk honestly about the environment in any context today without speaking critically about this president." As in the oil and coal industry, Kennedy said, Bush's decision on nuclear waste and his approval of the Department of Energy's plans for burying the most deadly type of it in Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was driven by cronyism. "We think the safest thing we can do with it is dry cask it and store it on site," Kennedy said. "We don't want to ship it across country through hundreds of communities across thousands of miles where it would be vulnerable to attack or to accident." A Kennedy critic says Bush is being wrongly accused of shirking environmental protections. Jonathan Adler, assistant law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and contributing editor of National Review Online, said by telephone the heart and soul of the Clean Air Act is intact. The Bush administration is still making companies comply with the rules, Adler said. Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 13 Public Citizen Fiscal Irresponsibility: Corporate Tax Bill A Haven for Energy Industry Giveaways Oct. 6, 2004 Statement by Joan Claybrook, President of Public Citizen The energy industry has successfully pressured Congress for a heap of pork on a corporate tax bill (H.R. 4520) that was initially designed for the limited purpose of changing U.S. law declared illegal by the World Trade Organization.  Now in conference committee and possibly due for a vote as early as today, billions of dollars in corporate tax breaks  some of which are taken from the failed energy bill  remain buried in the massive 600-plus page tax bill. Few members will read it before they must vote on it. One of the biggest corporate welfare items in the bill is a provision that will allow Americas largest energy companies  which are among the most profitable in the U.S.   economy    to reclassify energy production as a manufactured good in order to qualify for potentially tens of billions of dollars in new tax deductions. The manufacturing tax deduction has previously been available only to traditional manufacturing industries. The size of this ballooning tax deduction increases over time to a maximum of   9 percent of a companys production income after 2009. The total estimated cost of this tax deduction is $76.5 billion from 2005 to 2014. While this estimate includes the deductions for many different industries, energy companies would likely be the largest recipient. Among the other most egregious handouts in the bill: + A one-sentence provision extending to the end of 2007 an existing $100,000 tax deduction for small business owners who purchase SUVs or other light trucks over 6,000 pounds. This could cost $1.4 billion for every 100,000 taxpayers who take advantage of the loophole. The loophole otherwise would expire by 2006. An amendment pending in conference may reduce the tax deduction to $25,000. + A measure providing tax breaks to oil refineries to improve clean air standards.  While this appears to be reasonable, the problem is that the bill defines small refiners as those with refining capacity below 205,000 barrels per day  a high threshold that will include some large oil companies that have enjoyed huge profits, such as Dow Chemical and Sinclair Oil-Little America Refining. + A tax    break to help boost Regional Transmission Organizations (RTO). The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has stumbled in its attempts to force power utilities to join its anti-consumer RTO electricity market system. A new tax break appears to serve as an end-run around this problem: Utilities will be enticed to sell their transmission assets into these systems with $5 billion in tax breaks in the first two years.   RTOs are Enrons dream come true; they are huge, multi-state electricity systems that prioritize the needs of energy traders like Goldman Sachs and other power marketers at the expense of consumers. + The suspension for another two years of the import duties on nuclear steam generators and reactor vessel heads  components that are being replaced in power plants around the country a move that would cost taxpayers $9 million. Replacing these components means that the reactors will continue to be used  and generate dangerous waste  long past their intended lifetimes. + A tax credit to energy industries for generating electricity from alternative fuel sources, although only one of the identified alternative sources, wind, is a clean, renewable energy source. The rest of the expensive credit, totaling $2.278 billion from 2005 to 2014, is doled out to companies that pollute, including manufacturers of refined coal, a fuel produced from dirty coal.  + A $231 million subsidy to five real estate developments, including the DestiNY USA project, which aims to build the worlds largest shopping mall near Syracuse, N.Y. DestiNY developer Robert Congel is a Ranger, meaning he has raised at least $200,000 for the Bush campaign, who hosted a fundraiser with Vice President Dick Cheney in November. Congel and his wife also have donated at least $15,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. + The rescission of a tariff on ceiling fans imported from China, a gift to giant retailer Home Depot, which stands to gain up to $44 million from the measure over the next three years. Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli is no stranger to the president: He has made no fewer than three trips to the White House during the Bush administration, appeared alongside Bush last December when the president made a speech at a Home Depot store in Maryland, and hosted a $2.25 million fundraiser featuring Bush for the Republican National Committee (RNC) at his Atlanta home in May. Both Nardelli and his top lobbyist, Kent Knutson, have been named Super Rangers for raising at least $300,000 for the Republican National Committee. Knutson has his own connections to the White House via his wife, Karen, a former top Cheney aide who served as deputy director of the vice presidents secret energy task force. In a final showdown of the 108th Congress, the energy industry is poised to push through billions of dollars in corporate welfare paid out of a depleted U.S. Treasury, which already is hosting a $422 billion deficit. Since 2001, electric power, natural gas and oil corporations have contributed $73 million to federal candidates, with three-quarters of that total going to Republicans.  We urge members of Congress to see this bill for what it is: a giant gift to undeserving industries and vote against this legislation. For more information about the energy provisions in the corporate tax bill, click here [http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/electricity/en ergybill/articles.cfm?ID=12395] . For information about the SUV tax deduction, click here [http://www.citizen.org/documents/HR_4520_Fact_Sheet.pdf] . ### ***************************************************************** 14 Arizona Republic: Nuclear threats should anger us October 8, 2004 First Iran says they have missiles that can travel 1,200 miles. Now they are enriching uranium that could be used for nuclear weapons. Heaven only knows what the North Koreans are up to. Now the United Nations weapons inspector's final report says Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and no capacity to build them with sanctions in place. This leaves our military bogged down in a war in Iraq for at least 10 years, unless we cut and run, while we have no troops hence no credible threat with which to meet the Iranian and Korean threat. We have been fools and no wonder our potential adversaries are taking advantage of it. Is the world better off without Saddam? Even if it means the world adds two more hostile nuclear threats to rid the world of one impotent dictator? I am very angry. The American people should be very angry. - Megan Crane, Phoenix Copyright © 2004, azcentral.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 Las Vegas RJ: Energy tax credit inches ahead Friday, October 08, 2004 Companies would get incentive to bring geothermal plants on line By SAMANTHA YOUNG STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Geothermal energy producers are poised to receive a new tax break in a bill moving toward final passage in Congress this week. The limited five-year production tax credit would reimburse companies that bring geothermal plants on line before Jan. 1, 2006. The credit would be 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity produced. It could help producers of varying sizes raise several hundred thousand dollars to a $1 million or more, said Karl Gawell, executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association. The tax credit would be adjusted for inflation in succeeding years. Although less generous than a 10-year credit the industry had sought, executives described it as a good start to encourage investment in the developing renewable energy field where Nevada is a leading player. "People can start planning now," Gawell said. Lawmakers agreed to the tax break despite the objections of some lawmakers who wanted to keep energy provisions out of the bill. "It was critical to have this tax credit included in the final bill to set a precedent for encouraging new geothermal energy production," Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said in a statement. "Now, it will be easier to extend this credit and make it permanent in the future." In a separate statement, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said: "Tapping these resources will strengthen our economy by creating jobs and providing a steady source of power, and it will strengthen our nation by reducing our dependence on foreign oil." The geothermal credit was patterned after a 1992 production tax credit given to the wind industry. Renewable energy proponents say tax credits for biomass, geothermal and solar would encourage power plant construction and bring down the cost of alternative energy. For investors, the tax credit cushions the risk involved in building an expensive power plant by guaranteeing revenue from the government based on the amount of power generated. Because the credit rewards plants by the amount of power produced, Gawell said owners also would have an incentive to generate electricity at the lowest cost possible. In Nevada, the tax credit could help foster development to meet the state's renewable portfolio law, which requires public utilities to buy 15 percent of their power from wind, geothermal, solar and other renewable sources by 2015. Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 16 [NYTr] Israeli Communist Leader Against Nuclear Weapons Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 14:42:13 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://www.ain.cu Israeli Communist Leader Against Nuclear Weapons Havana, Oct 8 (AIN) Tel Avivs nuclear arsenal destabilizes the Middle-East, and is far form being a guarantee of peace as the Zionist government is trying to present it, said Issam Makhoul, Secretary General of the Israeli Communist Party on Thursday. The escalation of violence against Palestine is not the solution to the conflict between the two territories, asserted the member of Israels parliament, who considers the security of his country to be closely related to its withdrawal from the territories occupied from its neighbor country since 1967. In conversations with Orlando Fundora, president of the Cuban Movement for the Peace and Sovereignty of the Peoples, Makhoul mentioned the efforts of an Israeli parliamentarian group, in favor of the nuclear disarmament. After detailing the roots of the Peace Movement, Fundora stated that the top priority for World Council for Peace and that of the Cuban NGO consists of promoting peace in the Arab world. Both parties agreed on the need for coordinated actions for this noble task, including the increasingly emerging womens and youth movements in Israel against the war. Makhoul, who is visiting the island at the request of the Cuban Communist Party from October 4 to next Monday, met with the president of the Cuban National Assembly Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada on Friday. * Search the NYTr Archives at: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web, visit: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 17 BBC: US plutonium reaches French plant Last Updated: Friday, 8 October, 2004 [Cargo being transported to southern processing plant] Police guarded bridges along the route south A controversial shipment of US weapons-grade plutonium has reached a processing plant in southern France. Several dozen anti-nuclear protesters met the convoy on arrival at the plant in Cadarache. They said the plutonium was vulnerable to terrorist attack. The 125kg consignment was heavily guarded on its journey across France. The state-owned firm which will reprocess it - Areva - insists it is safe and will be converted into fuel to generate electricity commercially. The treatment is part of a post-Cold War agreement between the United States and Russia to get rid of plutonium from excess nuclear warheads. Tight security The plutonium has been in transit since two British-registered ships left South Carolina last month and delivered it to Cherbourg in northern France. It was then loaded onto lorries and driven to the plant in nearby La Hague for overnight storage before being taken to Cadarache. Police guarded all the bridges along the route, while armed guards accompanied the convoy and helicopters hovered overhead. "This is a high-risk strategy being played by the nuclear industry with the lives of millions of people," said Shaun Burnie, of Greenpeace International. A French court has ruled that any protester who goes within 100 metres of the shipment faces a 75,000 euro fine. "The plutonium... is shipped in casks that comply with the regulation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," Areva said in a statement. "Its transport is the object of the strongest safety and security measures." Cogema will process the material and convert it into mixed oxide nuclear fuel (MOX), which will then be shipped back to the US for civilian use. The US Department of Energy says the plutonium has to be shipped overseas because there is no plant capable of carrying out the conversion process in the US. ***************************************************************** 18 Bulletin Wire: Canada's missile defense fight [http://www.thebulletin.org BulletinWire | October 8, 2004 The Canadian governments support of U.S. missile defense efforts in North America met some resistance this week when missile defense opponents held rallies throughout Canada. On October 2, the Canadian Peace Alliance sponsored 25 small demonstrations to protest the Canadian governments pro-missile defense rhetoric. Were trying to say that missile defense is absolutely ridiculous for Canada, protester Jo Wood said. Its like being up on a trapeze without a safety net (Ottawa Sun, October 3). According to a national poll, Canadians are split on participating in a U.S. missile defense. They are saying we have to be part of it . . . [but] this is a borderline issue, pollster Michael Marzolini said. This is almost 50-50 and this mirrors almost every major issue, like free trade or the war in Iraq, that really causes us to look at our relationship with the United States (National Post, October 5). That relationship is why missile defense is a prickly issue for the Canadian government. Former prime ministers Brian Mulroney and Paul Hellyer resisted U.S. missile defense overtures, and the subject is unpopular with a segment of the ruling Liberal Partys constituency. However, Prime Minister Paul Martin views missile defense as a gateway to more fruitful U.S.-Canadian relations. Were talking about the nature of the relationship we want with the United States, said Canadian Defence Minister Bill Graham. Cooperation with them clearly helps us. Given the potential for negative consequences . . . I think we should do it (Toronto Star, October 1). If it doesnt support missile defense, Canada fears the United States will greatly curtail Ottawas role in a number of other key North American security measures. U.S. efforts to enlist its allies as part of a global missile defense system were outlined in Missile Defense: Winning Minds, Not Hearts (September/October Bulletin). Author Nicole C. Evans detailed Canadas no-win situation: In April, Canada agreed to an early warning system for North America to be operated by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Canada had little choice; if NORAD were sidelined, Canada would abdicate its control over continental air defense. This would be a significant loss—through NORAD, Canada has been able to exercise disproportionate influence in relation to its military expenditures and resources. by Nicole C. Evans, September/October 2004 Activists Clown Around Downtown, Ottawa Sun, October 3, 2004 ***************************************************************** 19 JS Online: Commerce secretary says oil prices will drop, advocates nuclear power By AVRUM D. LANK alank@journalsentinel.com Posted: Oct. 7, 2004 Waukesha - Oil prices eventually will settle at around $35 a barrel as the nation responds to high prices by demanding less energy, Donald Evans, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, told business leaders at a campaign stop Thursday. He added that greater use of nuclear power eventually will be part of the answer to the nation's energy needs. Oil closed Thursday at $52.67 a barrel, more than what it cost in May 2003 and far above the $18 a barrel that it sold for in January 2002. A former oil industry executive, Evans explained the price run-up by noting that the world's capacity to produce additional oil "has evaporated" in recent months because of supply disruptions and increased demand from emerging economies. "When prices go up, demand goes down," he said during the meeting at the Country Inn Hotel and Conference Center. "It takes time. It works its way through the economy over years, but there will be a demand response." He said that when the adjustment occurs, prices will end up in the "middle to high $30s" a barrel. "I wouldn't stick my head in the sand" and expect prices to be much lower, he added. In a news conference following his meeting, Evans declined to predict when prices would break. He also said that there was no need for aggressive government action to help the process along, such as raising the fuel efficiency standards for automobiles. In his meeting, Evans said that one way to reduce the demand for oil and natural gas is "to pound the table for nuclear power." Nuclear energy plants produce cheaper, cleaner energy than other types of generators with no emissions of carbon dioxide, he said. "I think it (nuclear power) ought to be a major part of our energy mix in decades ahead," he said. The last nuclear power plant went on line in the U.S. in 1996 in Tennessee. Asked about the problem of disposing of spent nuclear fuel, he said work is moving ahead on creating a central depository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. Wisconsin has imposed a moratorium on the construction of new nuclear plants until such a site is available. "I'm going to stay optimistic" about the future of nuclear fuel, Evans said. From the Oct. 8, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Get the Journal Sentinel delivered to your home. Subscribe now. [http://www.jsonline.com/services] Copyright 2004 [http://www.jsonline.com/copyright.html] , Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 20 Bellona: Bellona's fourth report on nuclear Russia OSLO - Bellona’s fourth report on sources of radioactive contamination within Russia, and on Russian nuclear politics as a whole will be published shortly. Unlike the three previous reports (which focused on contamination sources in Northwest Russia), this report has as its focus the broader scale of Russia’s nuclear industry, and the virtually unchecked power it has managed to maintain since 1949 with the explosion of the first Soviet atom bomb. 2004-10-08 10:43 The Goal of This Report The goal of this report to present and analyse new developments in the Russian military and civilian nuclear complexes based on open sources and independent research. The report also seeks to guide policy makers and nuclear authorities to solutions based on sound, objective reasoning founded on our information. We also hope to inform general readers about the hazards the world faces as a result of the Cold War legacy, and how these threats are being addressed. The Authors Igor Kudrik is a researcher and co-author of the report The Russian Northern Fleet: Sources of Radioactive Contamination and The Arctic Nuclear Challenge. He worked for a number of Russian environmental organizations before becoming the head of Bellona’s Murmansk office. Since 1996 he has been working as a researcher and editor-in-chief for www.bellona.org for the Bellona Foundation in Oslo. Charles Digges, has written about environmental and human rights issues in Russia since 1994. Prior to joining Bellona, he worked as a reporter and editor with The St. Petersburg Times and The Moscow Times, Russia's two pre-eminent English-language newspapers. He has also worked for many western-based publications like The International Herald Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation and others. Since 2001, he has covered Russia's civilian and military nuclear industries for Bellona Web. He is based in Oslo where he writes for and edits Bellona’s English-language page. Alexander Nikitin, Chairman of the board Environmental Right Center Bellona (ECR Bellona) in St. Petersburg. Nikitin is a graduate of the Leningrad Naval Academy, where he obtained a degree in nuclear engineering. He served onboard nuclear submarines as chief nuclear engineer, and later as chief inspector at the Nuclear Safety Inspection of the Ministry of Defence in Russia. He co-authored the Bellona reports The Russian Northern Fleet: Sources of Radioactive Contamination and The Arctic Nuclear Challenge. Nils Bøhmer a nuclear physicist and head of the Bellona Foundation’s Russian Studies group, is the co-author of Sources of Radioactive Contamination in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk Counties, The Arctic Nuclear Challenge and of Reprocessing Plants in Siberia. He served as an advisor in the development of the Bellona report The Russian Northern Fleet: Sources of Radioactive Contamination. Prior to joining Bellona, Mr. Bøhmer worked for the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority. Vladimir Kuznetsov, a former inspector with Russia’s nuclear regulatory body, Gosatomnadzor, is the author of several articles and books on Russian nuclear safety practices, most notably his 2003 book Nuclear Danger. He is currently the director of nuclear and radioactive safety programmes at Green Cross, one of Russia’s most respected environmental NGOs. Vladislav Larin is the author of several books on the Russian nuclear industry, most notably for this report, Mayak, a Problem for the Century, as well as many others. A scientific journalist and researcher by profession, his articles have appeared in the Russian Academy of Science’s magazine Energy: Economics, Technology and Ecology. He is also a founding member of the Moscow-based NGO EKOPRESSSTsENTER which brings together ecological experts and journalists. His articles on Mayak have also been featured in the London Guardian’s “The Best of the World Media section.” Access to information When studying and analysing the work of the Russian nuclear industry, one must bear in mind that it has gone through several permutations, starting out as the First Chief Directorate, expanding the Ministry of Medium Machine-Engineering (Minsredmash), which was the most important sub-departments of the Soviet military-industrial complex, later to the Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom), and now to the Rosatom agency. The industry’s main purpose was to produce material for Soviet nuclear weapons. As in any country, secrecy surrounding the military is understandable. But in the Former Soviet Union (FSU) this secrecy was pathological in nature and was a restriction on the work of the sphere’s own specialists in their efforts to increase the efficiency and safety of the nuclear industry. As in other countries, most notably the United States, the pursuit of nuclear weaponry came to include the pursuit of nuclear energy, which also remained shrouded in secrecy. The lack of information in the civilian nuclear energy sector, though, is characterised not so much by a total information black-out—as the Russian Ministry of Defence and the nuclear industry would have it with their military installations—as it is by the omission of substantive public discussion on the decrepitude of many of Russia’s energy producing reactors and the lack of space for dealing with Russia’s ever-mounting quantity of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and radioactive waste. The cult of secrecy surrounding the Soviet nuclear industry relaxed somewhat after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, and the collapse of the USSR brought with it an outpouring of international resources to secure the remnants of the Soviet Cold War nuclear machine. It also provoked an openness about the industry from the Russian authorities, who were more forthcoming with foreign governments and NGOs wishing to aid the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in securing its vast nuclear arsenal and dealing with its environmental consequences. The outside world’s first glimpse into this secret society confirmed that the consequences were, indeed, catastrophic, and would only grow worse if they were ignored. This openness peaked in 1994, and foreign programmes like the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) initiative had unprecedented access to Russian military sites, and newly-sprouted NGOs were able to work, if not in partnership, then at least in conditions of détente, with nuclear authorities (see chapter 2 for full information on foreign nuclear remediation aid projects). Researchers possessed previously unheard-of latitude to study and write on the environmental and security hazards facing the former Soviet Union’s military and civilian nuclear complexes. But the era of openness was short lived. The Russian state felt thought there were too many hands meddling in it nuclear safety issues without government mandate. Unaccustomed to open discussion, the Kremlin saw the new programmes and the open flow of information as running out of control. The Russian Security Police (FSB)—the KGB’s successor organization—was called in to show that who was boss: the Russian state. Access restrictions at nuclear sites being assisted by CTR and other bilateral threat reduction programmes from the West began to surface with more frequency, and major clamp-downs on NGOs that were investigating sources of radioactive contamination and proposing solutions became the norm. The 1996 arrest on treason charges of Alexander Nikitin, a former naval officer and environmentalists who had contributed information from open sources to an earlier Bellona Foundation report on Russia’s Northern nuclear Fleet made the FSB’s point that not all were allowed to take part in this work loud an clear With the ascent of Vladimir Putin, a former KGB Colonel, to Russia’s presidency in 2000, the screws on information where tightened even further. The approach was, however, more cunning than that of Putin’s predecessor administration. Unlike former President Boris Yeltsin, the current administration knows the value of public relations—and how they can be manipulated. It was a lesson taught to them during the Kursk tragedy of 2000. Information about the disaster was released in volumes, but the majority of it was either half-truths or blatant lies. It was again becoming very difficult to get a clear picture of Russia’s nuclear landscape. A distinct policy of sweeping away unwanted participants was defined as well. In his 2004 State of the Union address, Putin arguably declared war on internationally-funded NGOs, accusing them of being financed by criminal structures—the so-called oligarchs living in self-imposed exile, and foreign governments who “are working contrary to the interests of the Russian state.” It is reasonable to assume that the already deteriorating structure of obtaining independent information will worsen, if not dry up altogether. "What’s good for Minatom is good for the state." (Popular saying within the Russian nuclear industry) Conclusions The conclusions to this report are drawn from the idea that Russia needs to comprehensively re-evaluate the nuclear policies, in particular the closed nuclear fuel cycle, that it inherited from the Soviet Union. We also wish to highlight how Russia's dilapidated nuclear infrastructure feeds on the funding of both Russian and international nuclear remediation programmes to keep itself afloat. Russia’s nuclear industry is currently fuelled by highly enriched uranium left over from Cold War stockpiles. About a quarter of this uranium is committed to the U.S.-Russia HEU-LEU agreement, but the rest remains a source of free fuel to keep Russia’s reactors running. But the nuclear industry understands that this essentially free fuel source is finite—most uranium mining was done in the former republics of the Soviet Union. As a result, one plan actively being pursued by Russian nuclear industry is a closed nuclear fuel cycle based on plutonium breeder reactors—which present technological problems and unacceptable proliferation and environmental risks. But Russian legislation allowing for the import of SNF provides a good source of reactor grade uranium for such breeder reactors if they are ever realized. That such a costly and technologically uncertain programme is even being pursued points to other flaws, namely those surrounding the politics of the nuclear industry. Instead of putting such issues as SNF import and breeder reactors up for discussion among independent experts and the general public—who will ultimately bear the cost of these notions—decisions are made in the narrowest of circles by those who have the president’s ear. Though the authors of this report agree that international and domestic programmes geared toward securing Russia’s nuclear industry are well intentioned and have made great progress, many unfortunately and unwittingly contribute to the perpetuation of Russia’s nuclear industry and nuclear fuel cycle in its current form To combat these problems, Bellona has assembled in the concluding chapter to this report an action plan. This action plan includes several elements. Broad described, they include: + Risk assessments that will be carried out by independent experts before nuclear remediation projects are even begun; + A truly independent nuclear regulatory organisation with the mandate and authority to carry out independent assessments of Russia’s nuclear activities; + Transparency for all nuclear remediation projects including open expert discussions, including experts from non-governmental organisations, of projects to be undertaken; + International coordination oversight to account for enormous sums of money that have been pledged for nuclear remediation projects as well as to establish what are the most important nuclear hazards that need to be addressed; + Audits provided on a full and regular basis to donor countries both while projects are underway and when they are completed; + A restructuring of Russia’s own internal nuclear remediation programmes so that cash is accounted for and spent on those goals for which it was earmarked, thus replacing the currently opaque and slippery allocation process; + A Russian federal master plan for nuclear remediation in which the Russian state outlines and prioritises its own nuclear remediation goals. For more information and final publication date, please contact info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] or tel: +47-23234600 Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 21 San Luis Obispo Tribune: Biz Buzz: $100 million Diablo contract awarded | 10/08/2004 | The Tribune Westinghouse Electric Co. has won the contract to replace eight steam generators at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The contract is valued at more than $100 million. Replacement of the 19-year-old original generators, however, is contingent on approval from the state Public Utilities Commission, which plans hearings soon. An environmental report would be done before a decision by the commission, expected in fall 2005. The overall project is expected to cost more than $700 million and add about 700 workers to Diablo's current workforce of about 1,400 employees. "I think the PUC will approve the project; otherwise we would have to shut down the plant," said Jeff Lewis, spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which owns Diablo Canyon. It's more cost-effective to replace the generators than build a new $1 billion plant somewhere else, Lewis said. PG&E's schedule calls for four generators to be replaced in one reactor in 2008 and four more in the plant's other reactor in 2009, he said. If the commission gives the go-ahead, PG&E would provide the capital for the project, and ratepayers would pay back the millions of dollars starting in 2008. Rates would increase nearly 2 percent, then decrease over time, Lewis said. -- Carol Roberts To suggest a news story, call 781-7932. Press releases can be sent by fax to 781-7905, by e-mail to [bizbuzz@thetribunenews.com] or mailed to Biz Buzz, The Tribune, P.O. Box 112, San Luis Obispo, CA 93406-0112. ***************************************************************** 22 TheStar.com - Editorial: Enticing power deal Fri. Oct. 8, 2004. | Updated at 07:46 AM If events had unfolded differently, Ontario would be getting 10 per cent of its electricity from northern Manitoba. Alas, a deal to import Manitoba hydroelectric power was scuttled by Bob Rae's NDP government in 1991, during the dark days of an Ontario recession. Now the two provinces are trying to resurrect the deal to build the hydro-electric Conawapa dam on the Nelson River in northern Manitoba. Hopefully, they will succeed because such a deal could benefit both provinces. Manitoba would be able to cash in on its resources while energy-starved Ontario, which may lose half its power generators to old age over the next 12 years, would receive price-stable, clean electricity. Recently, the provinces released a favourable preliminary report and have agreed to proceed to the next stage, commissioning detailed technical and economic analysis. Clearly, the big issue is cost. It will take an estimated $5.5 billion to build the new dam in Manitoba as well as a 2,000-kilometre transmission line to central Ontario. Under the plan, Ontario would pay $1 billion for the transmission line, Manitoba $3.5 billion for new hydro dams, and Ottawa would kick in about $1 billion. Initially, Ontario would only receive modest amounts of power: 1,500 megawatts, or about 5 per cent of the province's current power supply. Even this relatively small amount of power would not start flowing quickly. With environmental assessments taking up to five years, it could be a decade or more before Ontario sees any benefit. What makes the Manitoba deal enticing is the long-term potential. Additional hydro dams could be built in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario that combined could eventually produce 25 per cent or more of Ontario's power needs. That would help Ontario wean itself off nuclear power. Massive construction and maintenance cost overruns in the nuclear sector are the prime reason Ontario consumers are paying an extra charge of 0.7 cents on every kilowatt hour of power they use to pay off $21 billion in stranded hydro debt. There are hurdles to overcome with the Manitoba project. Native groups whose land would be affected still have to sign on. All sides recognize the challenges ahead. Timing is running short for Ontario to find new sources of power. Without adequate supplies, industries cannot expand, household rates will rise even further, and the Liberal government's promise to close coal-fired power generators by 2007 will never be achieved. Ontario must plan for the future. The Manitoba project has the potential to be a good investment in Ontario's long-term prosperity. That's why it is worthy of the in-depth study that is now underway. Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Distribution, transmission or republication of any material from www.thestar.com [http://www.thestar.com] is ***************************************************************** 23 Mos News: Russia’s Gazprom Seeks to Take Over Key Nuclear Company firm Atomstroieksport - - MOSNEWS.COM Photo from www.atomstroyexport.ru Created: 08.10.2004 14:19 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:19 MSK MosNews Russia wants gas monopoly Gazprom to extend its reach into atomic power by taking over the country’s sole exporter of nuclear technology, the Reuters news agency quoted Russian officials and media as saying on Friday. The move comes as the Kremlin seeks to create a web of control over the strategic energy sector through Gazprom, the world’s biggest gas company. Nuclear firm Atomstroieksport, with an order book of $3 billion, is one of the pillars of Russia’s nuclear industry. One of its projects, a nuclear reactor in Iran, is a major irritant in Moscow’s relations with Washington, which says Tehran can use it to acquire atomic arms. Vedomosti daily quoted a source close to Atomstroieksport as saying Gazprom subsidiary Gazprombank would soon take over the firm by buying 54 percent of its shares from firms linked to Russian machinery maker OMZ. An OMZ spokesman confirmed OMZ was preparing to sell its stake but could not name the buyer. He said OMZ itself owned about 20 percent in Atomstroieksport. Gazprom officials declined to comment. The remainder of the nuclear reactor builder belongs to state companies controlled by Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency, or RosAtom. Vedomosti said the transaction had been completed and that Gazprombank may sell the shares to firms linked to RosAtom in the future. Gazprom is due to take over state oil firm Rosneft soon in a stock-funded deal, which will enable the state to regain control over the gas company lost in the 1990s. Chief Executive Alexei Miller, who is close to President Vladimir Putin, has also said Gazprom has built strategic stakes in national power group UES and in Moscow’s regional utility in its bid to become a fully integrated energy group. A source in RosAtom said the government had been trying to regain OMZ’s shares for months. “Our position is that a strategic company like that should belong to the government, and I can confirm that we’ve been working on that for some time,” the source told Reuters. “This is an area where the government has to make strategic and political decisions. Atomstroieksport is Russia’s key builder of nuclear reactors, and that is of course being done within the framework of international agreements, and the government is responsible for that,” the source added. Moscow, Iran’s close political partner, has long defied U.S. pressure to ditch construction of the Bushehr reactor in a country Washington believes wants weapons of mass destruction. Atomstroieksport is the successor of a nuclear export company set up in Soviet times to assist Moscow’s allies in building nuclear reactors. Apart from Iran, it is also building two nuclear reactors in China and one in India. OMZ’s general director, Kakha Bendukidze, is also Georgia’s economy minister. Analysts said the deal would not have a major impact on OMZ’s results because it does not consolidate Atomstroieksport, which made a 2003 loss. SEE ALSO Write us: [info@mosnews.com] Copyright © 2004 MOSNEWS.COM Designed by [http://design.gazeta.ru/] ***************************************************************** 24 Pantagraph.com Activist: Fight nuclear power 10/08/04 BLOOMINGTON -- Nuclear arsenals still point at the world's cities more than a decade after the Cold War, and atomic power plants like the one in Clinton dot the nation's landscape. That should terrify Americans into action, one of the world's leading advocates for nuclear disarmament told Central Illinois residents Thursday.--> Friday, October 8, 2004 Disarmament advocate talks at IWU, ISU By Michele Steinbacher msteinbacher@pantagraph.com BLOOMINGTON -- Nuclear arsenals still point at the world's cities more than a decade after the Cold War, and atomic power plants like the one in Clinton dot the nation's landscape. That should terrify Americans into action, one of the world's leading advocates for nuclear disarmament told Central Illinois residents Thursday. "Why do you have all these missiles if Russia is now your best friend?" Dr. Helen Caldicott asked a crowd gathered at an Illinois Wesleyan University lecture hall Thursday. Later that night she spoke at Illinois State University. Caldicott, founder and president of the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Policy Research Institute, also urged her audience to consider the medical hazards associated with so-called clean nuclear energy -- and to fight plans to build a second nuclear reactor in Clinton. "It would be the 14th reactor in this state, a state that already has the most in the nation," she said. "You live in a very, very dangerous area," she added. The pediatrician told the afternoon crowd that as a physician she knows the effects of nuclear energy and radiation. Born and raised in Australia, she also knows it firsthand as a melanoma survivor. The Earth's ozone layer, which filters out harmful solar radiation, has developed a hole over the Southern Hemisphere. That has led to a melanoma epidemic there, she said. Chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons eat away the ozone layer. Aerosol propellants and refrigerants played a role, but so do the gases produced when uranium is enriched for nuclear fuel, she said. "This planet is in the intensive care unit. It's an acute clinical emergency on our hands -- and its not physics or biology that's caused this, but men's minds." Citing nuclear disasters from Pennsylvania's Three-Mile Island in the 1970s to Ukraine's Chernobyl in the 1980s, Caldicott told the audience Americans need to work to close the nation's 103 nuclear power plants. "If one of them blows, the consequences would be devastating," she said. She lamented U.S. reluctance to study the long-term effects of Three-Mile Island. She said she believes nearby dairy cows provided milk to the Hershey chocolate factory just 13 miles away, resulting in carcinogenic chocolates. And the physician called Chernobyl a "catastrophe of unknown proportions." The U.S. military has built 77,000 nuclear weapons, she added. Russia and the United States house about 97 percent of the nuclear weapons in the world, she said, but those nations take a microscope to countries, such as North Korea, with only a handful of them. She described a what-if situation involving Russian missiles hitting Bloomington. The IWU lecture hall and people in a five-mile radius would be disintegrated. The blast would create a crater three-quarters of a mile wide, she said. A nuclear war would throw so much dust in the atmosphere, sunlight would be blocked out for nearly a year. Referring to Chechen rebels' massacre of Russian schoolchildren last month, Caldicott said people should consider the horror that would come from such terrorists reaching the Russian nuclear missiles. She also worries about the safety of radioactive waste at U.S. reactors. "A terrorist could fly a plane into a cooling pool," she said, referring to the water reservoirs where spent fuel is stored. Caldicott co-founded Physicians for Social Responsibility. The 23,000-member organization works to educate colleagues about the dangers of nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Nobel Prize-winning chemist Linus Pauling nominated Caldicott for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. The author of five books, Caldicott is best-known for her 1979-published "Nuclear Madness." Her most recent work is "The New Nuclear Danger: George Bush's Military Industrial Complex." Caldecott's institute is co-sponsoring a public symposium on "Nuclear Power and Children's Health" Oct. 15 and 16 in Chicago. For more information, see the institute's Web site, www.nuclearpolicy.org ***************************************************************** 25 NRC: Sunshine Act Meeting FR Doc 04-22783 [Federal Register: October 8, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 195)] [Notices] [Page 60438-60439] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr08oc04-132] AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. DATE: Week of October 4, 2004. PLACE: Commissioners' Conference Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. STATUS: Public and closed. [[Page 60439]] Schedule Changes Week of October 4, 2004 Wednesday, October 6, 2004 1:30 p.m.: Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex. 1). (This meeting was originally scheduled for October 7, 2004, at 2:30 p.m.) Thursday, October 7, 2004 2:35 p.m.: Affirmation Session (Public Meeting) (Tentative). (This affirmation session was originally scheduled for 9:25 a.m. on October 7, 2004.) a. State of Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (Confirmatory Order Modifying License); appeals of LBP-04-16 by NRS Staff and Licensee (Tentative). b. Private Fuel Storage (Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation) Docket No. 72-22-SFSI (Tentative). c. USEC, Inc. (Tentative). d. Citizen's Awareness Network's (CAN) Motion to dismiss the Yankee Rowe license termination proceeding or to re-notice It (Tentative). e. Duke Energy Corp. (Catawba Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2); Licensing Board's certification of its ruling on ``need to know`` during discovery (Tentative). f. Final Rulemaking to Add New Section 10 CFR 50.69, ``Risk- Informed Categorization and Treatment of Structures, Systems and Components for Nuclear Power Reactors'' (Tentative). 10:30 a.m.: Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex. 1). 1 p.m.: Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex. 1). *The schedule for Commission meetings is subject to change on short notice. To verify the status of meetings call (recording)--(301) 415- 1292. Contact person for more information: Dave Gamberoni, (301) 415- 1651. The NRC Commission Meeting Schedule can be found on the Internet at: http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-making/schedule.html [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-makin g/schedule.html] . The NRC provides reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities where appropriate. If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in these public meetings, or need this meeting notice or the transcript or other information from the public meetings in another format (e.g., braille, large print), please notify the NRC's Disability Program Coordinator, August Spector, at (301) 415-7080, TDD: (301) 415- 2100, or by e-mail at aks@nrc.gov [aks@nrc.gov] . Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis. This notice is distributed by mail to several hundred subscribers; if you no longer wish to receive it, or would like to be added to the distribution, please contact the Office of the Secretary, Washington, DC 20555, (301) 415-1969. In addition, distribution of this meeting notice over the Internet system is available. If you are interested in receiving this Commission meeting schedule electronically, please send an electronic message to dkw@nrc.gov [dkw@nrc.gov] . Dated: October 5, 2004. Dave Gamberoni, Office of the Secretary. [FR Doc. 04-22783 Filed 10-6-04; 9:41 am] ***************************************************************** 26 [NYTr] Cancer Patients Win Victory in French Nuke Test Case Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 19:03:06 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by John Clancy The Guardian Weekly - Oct 8, 2004 First victory in French nuclear test case by C;cile Prieur Le Monde Anne Auclair-Rabinovitch and Anne-Marie Bellot are charged with determining whether there is a connection between cancers suffered by the plaintiffs (some of whom have died) and the atomic radiation to which they say they were exposed. The French state persistently claims that nuclear tests had no effect on the health of veterans. This is challenged by the Polynesian association Mururoa e Tatou (Mururoa and Us) and the Association of Nuclear Test Victims (Aven). There were French nuclear tests over 36 years. Almost 150,000 people took part in 210 firings (50 of them atmospheric) in the Algerian Sahara from 1960 to 1962, and in the French Polynesian atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa from 1966 to 1996. The victims' complaint, made against persons unknown, describes the circumstances of the tests. Details are given of "accidents" such as one on May 1, 1962, when spectators, wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts, and including the army minister, Pierre Messmer, and the scientific research and atomic affairs minister, Gaston Palewski, were enveloped by a "black cloud" that caused them to run for cover. Palewski died of leukaemia in 1986. The plaintiffs' lawyers argue that the rudimentary protective measures ? spectators wore only special glasses and face masks and were instructed to stand with their backs to the explosion and their eyes closed ? were "derisory". They say that the French authorities were "fully aware of the risks to which they were exposing the civilians and soldiers carrying out tests, but failed to make the necessary information and instructions available". The complaint seeks to identify "responsibilities at every level". But investigations will be long and difficult, as nuclear tests are treated as official secrets. The defence ministry has now stated that it is "fully" and "unreservedly" determined to aid "the manifestation of the truth". Mururoa e Tatou and Aven want France to accept responsibility and to set up a compensation fund, as has been done in the United States. Until now the state has refused to recognise cause and effect between exposure to tests and onset of cancers. President Jacques Chirac claimed in 2003, on the basis of an International Atomic Energy Agency report, that while the concern expressed by veterans was "substantial and legitimate", there had been "no short- or long-term effect on people's health". The Guardian Weekly 2004-10-08, page 8 * Search the NYTr Archives at: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web, visit: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 27 [DU-WATCH] Supporting the truth - new coalition launches Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2004 00:11:28 -0500 (CDT) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Sue Hilderbrand October 13th Alliance (602) 481-9506 sue_hilderbrand@yahoo.com www.oct13alliance.org Does Depleted Uranium Cause Birth Defects in Children of US Military Personnel? Dennis Kyne Answers This Question and Others at ASU TEMPE, ARIZONA, October 1, 2004 - The Counter Recruitment Coalition and the October 13th Alliance present Supporting the Truth: Depleted Uranium, the Draft, and the Iraq War on October 12th at 5:30 in Neeb Hall on Arizona State University campus. Dennis Kyne, Gulf War I veteran, will share his Iraq War experience, including his exposure to depleted uranium and its resulting effects, and will discuss the implications of a military draft. These critical issues were not discussed during the Presidential Debate in Miami. This event is free to the public. As confirmed cases of depleted uranium contamination from exposure during the current conflict in Iraq rise, the damaging effects of exposure to depleted uranium must be counted as part of casualties of war. Exposure also effects future generations, as Gerard Darren Matthew knows, testing positive for depleted uranium contamination. Matthew's wife gave birth to a daughter, Victoria Claudette, who is missing three fingers and most of her right hand. Matthew stated on Democracy Now "We don't know if there's going to be any cognitive issues in the long run..." Dennis Kyne, an Army medic during the Gulf War I, recounts watching soldiers become sick with unexplainable symptoms after entering an area in Iraq that had been bombed for forty-five days with rounds of depleted uranium. Kyne will explain the effects of left-over depleted uranium from the first Gulf War on the soldiers of the current war in Iraq. Kyne will argue the military targets the "bottom third of America" for military recruits to act as the frontline in areas contaminated with low level nuclear materials. The Arizona Counter-Recruitment Coalition opposes the military recruitment strategy of targeting high school and college students and other youths, poor and working class people, and minorities. The coalition is working locally to end the current military model and provide alternatives to an imperial agenda. The October 13th Alliance is a diverse, non-partisan, grassroots coalition formed in response to concerns that critical issues will not be discussed during the Presidential Debate. Events, forums, and marches are scheduled to begin October 9th and continue through the day of the Presidential debate on October 13th. More events are being planned everyday and all groups are invited to participate in the planning of more events. Visit the website for scheduling and contact information at www.oct13alliance.org. ews ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/Sj.0lB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 28 Idaho Statesman: Fallout testimony set for Nov. 6 10-08-2004 [http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/] Testimony about fallout effects What: The Board on Radiation Effects Research takes testimony from Idahoans on effects of 1950s and '60s nuclear tests. When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 6 Where: Taco Bell Arena (formerly BSU Pavilion) To testify: People must register in advance. Call Dr. Isaf Al-Nabulsi at (202) 334-2671 or e-mail her at ialnabul@nas.edu. Statesman staff Edition Date: 10-08-2004 Follow our coverage on Idahoans not covered by the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. [http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/9999999 9/NEWS01/40929017/1002&theme=DOWNWINDERS&template=theme] Idahoans who want to testify about fallout from nuclear-bomb tests in the 1950s and '60s must sign up in advance of the Nov. 6 meeting in Boise. The Taco Bell Arena, formerly the Boise State Pavilion, has been chosen as the site, the Idaho congressional delegation said Thursday. The hearing before the Board on Radiation Effects Research is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Citizens can't just show up that day to speak. Oral testimony will be allowed only from those who register in advance. Speakers will be recognized on a "first-registered, first-recognized" basis, the delegation said in a news release. There will be no opportunity to register on the day of the event. The board also asks that speakers bring written remarks for submission to the effects board. The board, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is charged with recommending to Congress whether a federal compensation program for downwinders should be expanded. Idaho had four of the five hardest-hit counties in the country from iodine-131 fallout from Nevada bomb tests in the 1950s and '60s. But just 21 counties in Utah, Nevada and Arizona are included in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. The Idaho delegation statement said testimony "should address the appropriateness of expansion" of the compensation law. ***************************************************************** 29 Chicago Sun-Times: Environmentalists slam plan to drop radium limits October 8, 2004 BY GARY WISBY Environment Reporter An Illinois Environmental Protection Agency proposal to eliminate limits on radium in the state's waterways would contaminate mussels and wildlife that eat them, an environmental group charged Thursday. At an April hearing, IEPA official Bob Mosher said the agency could find no studies about the impact of the radioactive material on wildlife. "They didn't look very far," said Doug Dobmeyer, spokesman for Clean Water-Illinois. He cited a study showing freshwater mussels absorb radium-226 at toxic levels. Humans would be at direct risk if they ate the mussels, according to the study, done for the Southwest Water Management District in Brooksville, Fla. It's not known how many people do eat them. But it is known that mussels are consumed by fish, raccoons, waterfowl, otters and muskrats, said Brian Anderson, chairman of the biology department at Lincolnland Community College in Springfield. Those creatures could serve as pathways to other predators, including bald eagles, said Anderson, who formerly worked for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. "The scientific literature and common sense argue that IEPA's assertion that releasing concentrated radium into the environment is ridiculous," Anderson said. When told of the Florida study, Marcia Willhite, chief of IEPA's water bureau and Mosher's boss, said, "We'll certainly take a look at it. It may or may not give us a clue as to the tie between [lowering standards] and the concentration needed to be harmful to aquatic life." IEPA also wants to raise the radium limit for water near intakes of treatment plants from one picocurie per liter to five picocuries -- the same as for drinking water. "It didn't seem appropriate to hold [water being treated] to a cleaner standard than drinking water," IEPA spokeswoman Maggie Carson said. But the Florida study found that mussels in water with five picocuries of radium accumulated enough to require that the mollusks' flesh be sent to a low-level radioactive waste site. [http://www.dailysouthtown.com] Copyright 2004, Digital Chicago Inc. ***************************************************************** 30 asahi.com: Nuclear Fallout By TOSHIHIDE UEDA, The Asahi Shimbun Exposed:Five years after a deadly accident at a nuclear power plant, a national network to aid in the treatment of radiation victims has yet to be completed. `We have to aggressively pursue the creation of a medical support system to respond to (radiation exposure).' MAKOTO AKASHI Head of the NIRS radiation emergency medicine department When a steam leak at a nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture killed five workers in August, it was more than an isolated tragedy for their families and friends: It was also a call to action. Though the men were not killed by radiation exposure, the accident nevertheless underlined the importance of completing a national network of medical institutions that draws together specialists from various fields to treat radiation victims. The push to set up the network gained momentum following the September 1999 accident at a nuclear fuel processor in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, operated by JCO Co. In that accident, two of the three workers exposed to large doses of radiation eventually died. Last March, the central government designated the medical institution at Hiroshima University a center for the treatment of patients suffering from severe radiation exposure-the second so named, after the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) in Chiba. Yet despite these advances, on the whole the effort to dub core medical institutions in each prefecture has proceeded at a snail's pace. It was a full hour after the Aug. 9 accident at the No. 3 reactor at the Mihama Nuclear Power Plant that Makoto Akashi, head of the radiation emergency medicine department at NIRS, learned the extent of the disaster. Worse still, it was a member of the media who informed him that rescue workers had arrived on the scene to find that a number of plant workers had stopped breathing and had no pulse. A member of the Nuclear Safety Commission also contacted Akashi and told him to prepare for a possible summons to the accident site. Fortunately, there was no radiation leak at the Mihama reactor, which is run by Kansai Electric Power Co., and no one was exposed to radiation. Still, the experience left Akashi shaken. ``Radiation accidents can occur at anytime,'' he said. ``We have to aggressively pursue the creation of a medical support system to respond to such an event.'' Because exposure to high doses of radiation from a nuclear power plant accident can cause disorders throughout a victim's body, a variety of specialists must cooperate in the treatment. One of the problems with preparing for such accidents is that many nuclear power plants and other nuclear power-related facilities are located in sparsely populated regions. But these areas have few specialists capable of dealing with radiation exposure or medical institutions with the facilities to treat such patients. In July 1998, doctors took a step toward building a system for treating those exposed to radiation by creating the Radiation Emergency Medicine Network Council. About a year later, the JCO accident occurred. The three workers who were exposed to large doses of radiation were first taken to Mito Medical Center and then transferred to NIRS for treatment, as stipulated by network council guidelines in the event of an accident in Ibaraki Prefecture. In 2001, the Nuclear Safety Commission proposed extending the system throughout Japan. The network council now covers the 19 prefectures that either have or are close to nuclear power-related facilities. Those prefectures are supposed to designate a primary medical institution near the nuclear facility as well as a secondary one from among the core hospitals in the prefecture. Anyone exposed to radiation as a result of an accident would first be sent to the primary medical institution for treatment. Those exposed to high-level doses of radiation would be sent to the secondary medical institution. Patients diagnosed with the most severe symptoms would be transferred to one of two tertiary medical institutions, NIRS or Hiroshima University. Specialists from around the country would then convene at those facilities. According to officials at the 19 prefectures covered by the network council, as well as the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, only 14 prefectures have designated a secondary medical institution within their jurisdiction. Only 10 prefectures have designated a primary medical institution. Prefectural officials offer various reasons for the delay in designating such institutions. Officials in Saga and Kagoshima prefectures say that in the event of an accident they plan to dispatch medical teams to aid stations set up near the site rather than have a medical institution serve as the facility for initial treatment. Kyoto Prefecture officials say they plan to designate their primary and secondary medical institutions by the end of the year. Speed, of course, is essential in treating those exposed to radiation. ``Basically, treatment should be given at the site of the accident,'' Akashi said. ``It won't be possible to send every patient to either NIRS or Hiroshima University.'' There are also other systemic problems that have to be resolved. After the JCO accident, the central government passed a special measures law to deal with nuclear power disasters. Under the provisions of that law, the prime minister can directly instruct local governments to evacuate residents in the event of a radiation leak from a nuclear power-related facility. However, if no radiation leaks beyond the confines of the plant, it is treated as a regular disaster and prefectural governments are in charge. It is not clear where the government's legal responsibility lies in the event treatment for radiation exposure is required. Kazuhiko Maekawa, chairman of the network council and a doctor of emergency medicine, says a broader system must be created. ``The consciousness of those working at local medical institutions has definitely changed over the past five years,'' Maekawa said. ``The science and technology ministry, along with the health and welfare ministry, must be better coordinated so that the entire central government is involved.''(IHT/Asahi: October 8,2004) (10/08) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction ***************************************************************** 31 [NYTr] US Plutonium Cargo Sparks anti-Nuke Fury in France Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 11:33:59 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by John Clancy - Oct 7, 2004 Le Monde Jean-Fran!ois Augereau Two British freighters, the Pacific Teal and the Pacific Pintail, left Charleston in South Carolina last week on a journey across the Atlantic to the northern French port of Cherbourg. One of the two boats (which one is a closely guarded secret) is carrying a highly controversial cargo: 140kg of American weapons-grade plutonium, a powder so pure it could be used to manufacture a score of the nuclear warheads with which the United States and Russia equip their strategic missiles. The plutonium will be reprocessed in France. Not surprisingly French ecologists and anti-nuclear groups are up in arms about the shipment, which they regard not as a fuel but as a formidable form of nuclear waste, and all the more hazardous because even very small quantities of the substance can seriously contaminate the environment. Plutonium can also, if not properly handled, cause dangerous "criticality" accidents that cantrigger the production of uncontrolled radiation. That is why the 140kg of plutonium was divided up and placed in a large number of sealed canisters, which were then put in armour-plated containers. At first sight it seems paradoxical that two armed boats (100m long and 15m wide), with troops on board should have been mobilised to transport such a tiny cargo. But the sheer weight and volume of the armour-plating, along with security and environmental considerations in the event of a crash, meant that the plutonium could not be carried by air. The maritime route was also regarded as more likely to foil a possible attack by terrorists intent on seizing the plutonium. Another carefully kept secret is the date of the arrival of the two boats in Cherbourg harbour. The Pacific Teal and Pacific Pintail are well known to the nuclear energy industry and to environmental protection groups. They have already shipped spent nuclear fuel and vitrified nuclear waste to and from Japan. The convoy of US plutonium will be repackaged at the Areva/Cogema nuclear reprocessing plant at La Hague, near Cherbourg, before being driven on an undisclosed route to the nuclear research centre at Cadarache in the Bouches-du-Rhne departement in southern France There, and this is one of the reasons why, Greenpeace and other anti-nuclear associations such as Robin des Bois and Sortir du Nucl;aire have reacted so angrily, the plutonium oxide powder will be mixed with natural or depleted uranium and repackaged in the form of pastilles and rods at a plant, the Atelier de Technologie du Plutonium (ATPu), whose production was halted in July 2003 because it no longer complied with earthquake protection regulations. But its capabilities as a research laboratory have not been affected. It will therefore be able to manufacture a mixture of plutonium and uranium called Mox, which will then be transferred to Areva/Cogema's Melox factory in Marcoule, in the Gard d;partement, where it will be turned into four "fuel assemblies" similar to those that some French nuclear plants burn in their reactors. The whole operation, known as Eurofab, will last four months and cost $25m. The assemblies will not set off back to the US until the beginning of 2005; they will be installed and burned in Duke Power's Catawba Nuclear Station in South Carolina. It may seem surprising that the US does not make its own Mox. Up to now neither the Russians nor the Americans have felt the need to develop that particular technology, which the French have mastered. Hence the Eurofab venture, which is a test run for an even bigger operation, Mox for Peace, which aims to relieve Moscow and Washington of 34 tonnes of plutonium each. That is why a Franco-American industrial consortium DCS (Duke-Cogema-Stone & Webster) is scheduled to start building an American Mox-manufacturing plant, Demox,in Savannah River as early as mid-2005. The factory could be on line by 2008. The fuel it produces will be burnt from 2009 in the Catawba and McGuire reactors operated by Duke Power. The whole operation could earn Areva/Cogema up to $375m. * Search the NYTr Archives at: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web, visit: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 32 deseret news: Utah's nuclear waste ploy fails [deseretnews.com] Friday, October 8, 2004 Plan might have blocked storage, even protected Hill Copyright 2004 Deseret Morning News By Jerry Spangler and Donna Kemp Spangler Deseret Morning News WASHINGTON — A behind-the-scenes attempt by the Utah delegation to attach wilderness language to the Defense Reauthorization Act — which could have blocked the temporary storage of high-level nuclear waste in Utah and helped protect Hill Air Force Base — has fallen short. Deseret Morning News graphic A conference committee of senators and representatives working out differences between two versions of the bill has refused to include language, already part of a House version of the bill, that would have declared the Cedar Mountains area of Tooele County a wilderness area. "It is a disappointment," said Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. "A lot of bipartisan effort by all members of the Utah delegation went into trying to get it in." Matheson and other Utah officials did not know why the conference committee did not agree to the wilderness language. A wilderness designation could have blocked the construction of a railroad spur needed to transport nuclear waste to Goshute Indian tribal lands in Skull Valley. Private Fuel Storage (PFS), a consortium of mostly Eastern nuclear power utilities, has a contract with the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes to store 40,000 tons of nuclear waste in above-ground canisters on tribal lands about 75 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The site would be "temporary" storage inasmuch as the contract is for 20 years with an option for a 20-year renewal. But Utah officials have been fighting the proposal, fearing that temporary storage would become permanent and citing a litany of environmental and public health concerns. The language was included in the House version of the bill, at the behest of Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, who had a stand-alone bill on the same issue that passed out of a House committee unanimously. But attempts to keep it in during the conference committee failed. "This seems to me to be a repeat of the stealth tactic (former Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah) tried to do," said Sue Martin, spokeswoman for PFS. Utah Gov. Olene Walker met with the Utah delegation earlier this week to plot strategy, and the wilderness approach was deemed the best strategy currently available to help the state's efforts to block the waste. Utah officials had raised the wilderness issue during hearings by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, a three-judge panel deciding whether to recommend federal approval of the PFS license. The board rejected the state's argument. The wilderness language is supported by Utah environmental groups and Hill Air Force Base, which sees it as a way to preserve the viability of its Utah Test and Training Range. "It's a three-fer," one Utah official said. In fact, the drive to protect Hill Air Force Base is every bit as strong among the Utah delegation as is the effort to keep nuclear waste out of Utah. "The Air Force sees (the storage of nuclear waste in Tooele County) as a real threat to their training operations," said one member of Utah's delegation, speaking on condition of anonymity. Walker also played up efforts to save Hill, which will be considered for closure under the next round of national hearings on which military bases to close. "It would be a great way to preserve the purity of the Utah Test and Training Range," Walker said. Matheson said it is not a stretch of the imagination to include the wilderness language in the Defense Reauthorization Act because there is such a strong defense component with the viability of the Utah Test and Training Range at stake. Walker also emphasized that the wilderness strategy was just one of many discussed by the delegation. Utah officials are discussing whether to appeal a decision by a federal court judge that state law cannot supersede federal law on the regulation of nuclear waste. Walker pointed out that Minnesota has a law prohibiting the storage of nuclear waste there and that law has not been overturned by federal courts. "Getting the Supreme Court to even consider it would be hard, and whether they would even consider it, I don't know," she said. Officials say they also discussed ways to negotiate with the Goshutes to get them to voluntarily abandon the idea of nuclear waste storage. And there is talk about working with Nevada, where all nuclear waste is ultimately headed under current federal policy. Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada has been designated as a permanent repository for the nation's stockpile of nuclear waste, and the Nevada delegation has been fighting it tooth and nail. The Utah delegation has supported the Yucca Mountain solution, which has put it at odds with its neighbors to the west. "We talked about a lot of next-steps," Walker said. "The day is not done on this one," Matheson said. E-mail: spang@desnews.com [spang@desnews.com] ; donna@desnews.com [donna@desnews.com] © 2004 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 33 Las Vegas SUN: Majority strongly opposed to Yucca Poll: Issue unlikely to affect voters' choice for president By Steve Kanigher LAS VEGAS SUN The majority of very likely voters contacted in a statewide poll were opposed to a federal government plan to turn Yucca Mountain into the world's first permanent underground storage site for high-level nuclear waste. But when it came down to ranking the importance of the Yucca Mountain issue in their vote for president, 57 percent said it would not be important, 36 percent said it would be one of several important issues, and only 5 percent said it would be the most important issue. For those likely voters who said that the respective positions of Republican President Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry on Yucca Mountain would influence their vote for president, a majority said they were more likely to vote for Kerry. The statewide Las Vegas Sun/Channel 8 Eyewitness News/KNPR Nevada Public Radio poll of 600 very likely voters was taken Sept. 20 through Sept. 28 by the Washington-based polling firm Belden Russonello &Stewart. The poll had a margin of error of 4 percentage points. When asked their position on having a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, 56 percent of those polled said they strongly opposed the plan and 10 percent said they were somewhat opposed. Only 14 percent strongly favored the proposal and 13 percent were somewhat supportive. "That's a pretty wide margin," Kate Stewart, a partner in the polling firm, said. Those who were strongly opposed to the repository plan included a higher percentage of the women than the men (65 percent and 48 percent, respectively), a much higher percentage of Democrats than Republicans (81 and 33), and a much higher percentage of Kerry backers than Bush supporters (78 and 32). "It's not that salient of an issue but it's clearly a partisan issue," UNLV political science professor David Damore said. "I'm surprised at how much the Republicans have conceded this issue." While 58 percent of voters who identified themselves as independent said they were strongly opposed to the Yucca Mountain proposal -- placing them about halfway between the Democrats and Republicans -- 73 percent of the voters undecided in the presidential contest also expressed strong opposition. That result is more in line with the backers of Kerry, a Massachusetts senator. Overall, 89 percent of likely voters who identified themselves as Democrats either strongly or somewhat opposed the repository plan, compared with 44 percent of the likely voters who identified themselves as Republicans. Conversely, 46 percent of those who identified themselves as Republicans either strongly or somewhat supported Yucca Mountain as a repository, compared with 9 percent of the likely voters who identified themselves as Democrats. Damore said he was surprised that there weren't more voters who identified themselves as Republicans expressing strong opposition to Yucca Mountain, given the opposition voiced by Gov. Kenny Guinn and Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval, both Republicans. "Maybe they think it's inevitable and figure, 'Why fight it?' " Damore said of Republicans. "It doesn't jibe with the rhetoric you hear from Guinn and Sandoval." The differences between Democrats and Republicans on Yucca Mountain were not surprising to Stewart. "The interesting thing is that the Republican numbers are split," she said. "Right now I think the differences between Democrats and Republicans probably have to do more with Bush and Kerry's position on this." The poll informed likely voters that President Bush has said he approves of sending nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain and that Kerry has said that, if elected president, he would not send the waste to Yucca Mountain. Of those polled, 48 percent said that their presidential vote would not hinge on the positions Bush and Kerry have taken on Yucca Mountain. But 26 percent of those polled said the differences on this issue would make them much more likely to vote for Kerry, and 6 percent said they would be somewhat more likely to vote for the Democrat. Only 13 percent said they would be much more likely to vote for Bush because of the Yucca Mountain issue and 4 percent said they would be somewhat more likely to back the president. "This is a potential vulnerability for Bush and a place where Kerry can take advantage," Stewart said. "There are people who feel strongly about this issue and they're leaning toward Kerry at the moment. Kerry can talk about how Bush is out of touch with the needs of Nevada voters. "But I don't think this is an issue a lot of people will base their vote on." UNR political science professor Eric Herzik said the results of this poll track with others he has seen on Yucca Mountain. "These numbers generally track well for Democrats," Herzik said. "Yucca Mountain was never an issue of strength for Republicans. It will only hurt Republicans. The question is how much? "The Democrats think, based on their advertising, that this is a big issue. I think that that has been overstated. Issues like the war in Iraq and health care will be much more important factors." Bush told a Las Vegas audience in August that his decision to approve Yucca Mountain as the nation's high-level nuclear waste repository was based on sound science. But Damore said the poll shows that Kerry has the edge on this issue in Nevada. "What the Kerry campaign hasn't done is tie this more to Bush's credibility," Damore said. Among voters who identified themselves as independent, 27 percent said they would be much more likely to vote for Kerry because of his Yucca Mountain position, but only 10 percent said they would be much more likely to vote for Bush. Among undecided voters, 20 percent said they would be much more likely to vote for Kerry, compared with only 2 percent who said they would be much more likely to vote for Bush. In Clark County, 30 percent were much more likely to go with Kerry and only 11 percent were much more likely to vote for the president. "This is one of those issues that will play on the edges," Stewart said. "For a segment of independents and undecided voters this could tip the balance for Kerry." ***************************************************************** 34 Las Vegas SUN: Emergency funds sought for state's fight against Yucca Today: October 08, 2004 at 11:15:27 PDT By Cy Ryan < [cy@lasvegassun.com] > SUN CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- The state Nuclear Projects Office is seeking an emergency appropriation of $1.1 million to carry on the fight against Yucca Mountain. The request goes before the state Board of Examiners on Tuesday, when the board will also consider a $650,000 emergency allocation to Attorney General Brian Sandoval to continue the legal battle against the proposed nuclear dump, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The federal Yucca Mountain budget is still in question because Congress will not pass the spending bill allocating money to it until after the Nov. 2 election. The state receives federal money to fight the project but has not received as much as it has wanted in the past year. Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the project is working to cut the overall Yucca budget, which could ultimately delay the project, but in the meantime the state needs money to continue fighting it. Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Office, said his budget is "tapped out" and the Energy Department intends to file its application in December for a permit to build the repository. If the federal government submits its application in December, Loux said his office will have 90 days to review whether it is complete. The $1.1 million will carry the projects office through the end of February, but "we may have to come back for more money," he said. Loux's office must retain experts to review the department's license application and must put all of the state's documents on the electronic system in preparation for the hearing by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The state was getting $2.5 million from the federal government to help in the battle against Yucca Mountain, but that amount was slashed by 60 percent to $1 million. The department and the commission both denied requests from the state for more financial assistance, leaving the state to wait for Congress to pass a bill or get more money from the state. In approving the budget for the nuclear projects office, the 2003 Legislature anticipated the $2.5 million would be forthcoming in each of the two fiscal years. If the Board of Examiners, made up of Gov. Kenny Guinn, Secretary of State Dean Heller and Sandoval, approves the request, it goes to the Legislative Interim Finance Committee, which has about $3.3 million left in its emergency fund. The committee is scheduled to meet Nov. 17. The 2003 Legislature allocated $2 million to the attorney general's office for legal costs, including hiring outside lawyers, to pursue the court battle against Yucca Mountain. State Budget Director Perry Comeaux said Thursday that the attorney general's office had the authority to carry the balance of unused funds from one year to the next. About $1 million was used in the first year but Sandoval's office did not carry forward the additional $1 million into this fiscal year, so the money reverted to the general treasury. Sandoval also could have asked the finance committee for permission to carry the unspent money in fiscal 2004 forward to this fiscal year but he did not. Comeaux said Sandoval is now asking for the $650,000 to cover outstanding and expected litigation expenditures through February next year. Sandoval said he thought the Interim Finance Committee gave him authority in April this year to carry the money forward but there was a "misunderstanding." He said the $650,000 is just a part of the $1 million that he had authority to spend. Sandoval said he needs the money because the state has filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. contending the federal government improperly withheld about $4 million from the state for the nuclear budget. He said arguments are set for Jan. 12 next year. In addition, he said, the Nuclear Energy Institute has indicated it will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. in which the state won a victory. The appellate court ruled in July that the EPA's 10,000-year radiation standard for the proposed repository at Yucca unlawfully deviated from the stricter National Academy of Sciences recommendation. The court ruling, coupled with a decision by a NRC panel that the department did not meet documentation requirements were a setback for project and uncertainty in the fiscal 2005 budget number have left the project hanging until Congress or a court makes more decisions. The state wants to be on a level playing field, Loux has said. If the department gets all the money it needs and is able move forward with the project, the state wants the money it needs to move ahead with the fight. The state hired attorney Joseph R. Egan of Washington, D.C., at a rate of $395 an hour and also Antonio Rossmann, a San Francisco attorney, for $300 an hour to represent Nevada in the legal battle. ***************************************************************** 35 Las Vegas SUN: RFK Jr. says nuke waste should stay at power plants Photo: Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Today: October 08, 2004 at 9:48:21 PDT By Mary Manning LAS VEGAS SUN Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his six children live in New York, 10 miles downwind from Indian Point, the oldest nuclear power plant in the United States, but he said Thursday its nuclear wastes should not be shipped across country to Nevada for burial. While the nuclear industry is eager to open Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the nation's high-level nuclear waste repository, New Yorkers are uneasy about shipments of the nuclear waste passing by their homes, schools and hospitals, Kennedy said to more than 100 people at UNLV Thursday night. "They (nuclear industry) are desperate to open Yucca Mountain," Kennedy said. Kennedy, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, chief prosecuting attorney for Riverkeeper and president of Waterkeeper Alliance, said that a Yucca Mountain repository would allow nuclear power plants to continue operating. "We don't want them to transport those fuel rods out of New York," Kennedy said. Instead, the nuclear wastes that will remain radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years could be stored in dry casks at the reactor sites. "The problem is, the industry has to pay for it if stored on site, but if they ship it out here, the public has to pay for it." President Bush made a promise to Nevada that he would stick to sound science, Kennedy said. Scientists have said that more than 100 unanswered questions remain about the mountain's ability to contain radioactive wastes for thousands of years. A federal judge ordered the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency to protect future generations from radiation exposure. "They were all wrong on the geology in the first place." In his book, "Crimes Against Nature," Kennedy charges that Bush's administration deliberately set out to distort science. Nobel Prize winners and distinguished scientists from the National Academy of Sciences to universities have signed letters protesting Bush policies on global warming, genetic studies and environmental research. "I want to be very clear here: This book is not about a Democrat attacking a Republican administration," he said. The book reveals Bush appointees, most of them unfamiliar to the public, who bring corporate influence into the Oval Office and contributions to GOP coffers. Kennedy said he believes in America's free market system because capitalism promotes efficiency and discipline. However, the public shares in common resources such as clean air, clean water, forests and wildlands. "I don't think it is radical to protect the air and the water," Kennedy said. "I don't believe there is such a thing as Democratic children or Republican children." Asked if he planned to run for office like his father, Kennedy Jr. replied: "If I can escape that fate, I will." Kennedy said he felt that he was effective in his roles as attorney, activist, professor and fisherman. His childhood fishing trips on the Hudson River led him into environmental activism. Throughout his 45-minute speech that drew a standing ovation, Kennedy never mentioned Democratic presidential challenger Sen. John Kerry. Kennedy's visit to UNLV was part of a 10-college campus tour after his book, subtitled, "How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy." [http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/text/2004/oct/08/] . Photo: Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Las Vegas SUN main page All contents copyright 2004 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 36 L.A. Daily News: Perchlorate spread halts Soil n Whittaker-Bermite site studied - Santa Clarita [http://www.dailynews.com Article Published: Thursday, October 07, 2004 - By Susan Abram Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA -- Groundwater contaminated by perchlorate appears to have ceased from spreading deeper into the soil near wells on the Whittaker-Bermite site, according to a study released this week by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The report is a culmination of testing conducted on the former site from January 2003 through July 2004, and will now provide agencies working with the corps to move forward with plans to mitigate the contamination, Army corps officials said Thursday. "One of our objectives was to look at the migration pathways, and the question was how was (perchlorate) moving from the site to the wells," said Army corps engineer Larry Sievers, "Once you have identified the pathway, you are able to mitigate." Testing included drilling wells at 11 different locations within the study area, for a total of 8,500 feet. The Army corps also installed 41 groundwater monitoring points at varying depths with the 11 wells. Of the eight strata or layers identified, perchlorate did not sink past the third layer. "The good news is we have completed defining the problem, and we can begin to evaluate and design remedial systems," Siever said. State officials believe the pollution in Santa Clarita stems from federal defense manufacturing and testing at the former Bermite explosives factory near the Santa Clarita Metrolink Station. For nearly 50 years, the 996 acres off Soledad Canyon Road were used by defense contractors to build and test dynamite, Sidewinder missiles and small rockets used in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Cold War. Groundwater on the site has been found to contain as much as 58,000 parts per billion of perchlorate, according to state officials with the state Department of Toxic Substances Control. Santa Clarita Valley residents use a combination of groundwater and water imported from Northern California. In the event of a drought, residents would rely on water in the Saugus Aquifer, which is polluted with perchlorate. Perchlorate-tainted water has been found in 18 states, including California, Arizona and Nevada, and is believed to have leached into the water in 39 states -- wherever rocket fuel was manufactured or used. The contamination on the sites tested ranged from three micrograms to 11 micrograms per liter. The state recommends no more than four micrograms. Castaic Lake Water Agency officials, working with the Army corps since 2002, said teams will now move into design mode for how to clean up the contaminated areas. The agency manages state water in the Santa Clarita Valley and supplies it to local retailers, including its own Santa Clarita Water Division. "We're going to pump out those wells, using the standard approved ion-exchange process that's being used and been permitted for water supplies in the San Gabriel Valley basin," said Ken Peterson, project manager for the CLWA. Agency officials are still discussing how much water they will pump per minute. The capital cost is estimated to be $4 million, and $1 million each year after. The study also is significant, because it will be included in the 2005 Urban Water Management Plan, CLWA spokeswoman Mary Lou Cotton said. Last month, the state Court of Appeal invalidated the 2000 Urban Water Management Plan approved by the CLWA because the agency did not adequately address perchlorate contamination in local groundwater supplies. An accurate plan is necessary for developers who must ensure there is enough water supply before obtaining construction permits. The plan is updated every five years. The ruling favored Friends of the Santa Clara River and the Sierra Club, who had sued, saying the water plan included Santa Clarita's tainted groundwater supply as backup in case state supplies were limited by drought. The two groups also said the plan failed to assess the reliability of the supply in Santa Clarita's two groundwater pools, the shallow alluvial aquifer and the deep Saugus Formation. The Army corps study will be available for public comment for 45 days and can be viewed at the Canyon Country Library at 18601 Soledad Canyon Road, and at the Valencia Library, 23743 West Valencia Blvd. Susan Abram, (661) 257-5257 [susan.abram@dailynews.com] Copyright © 2004 Los Angeles Daily News ***************************************************************** 37 Lahontan Valley News: Forum outlines Yucca Mountain shipment risks October 7, 2004 Citizen Alert tows a model of a nuclear waste cask around the state. The ends of the dumbbell-shaped cask act as shock absorbers, while the waste is contained in the shaft. Photo by Kim Lamb JOSH JOHNSON, jjohnson@lahontanvalleynews.com [jjohnson@lahontanvalleynews.com] A trailer carrying a dumbbell-shaped model with the words "MOCK NUCLEAR WASTE CASK" pulled into the parking lot of the Fallon Convention Center Wednesday, greeting visitors who would learn more about potential risks of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste depository. Citizen's Alert, a Nevada-based environmental group, made a stop in Fallon to distribute information opposing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage project and nuclear waste transportation. Four community members attended the forum. Citizen's Alert is a on a 25-city tour to inform residents about the danger of nuclear waste transportation, Executive Director Peggy Maze Johnson said. The Department of Energy considers U.S. 95 a secondary route for nuclear waste transportation. "I think that Fallon needs to be concerned because this is a bureaucracy that's running amok," Johnson said. "They should be concerned that there could be a route running through." The Yucca Mountain site is located 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas in Nye County. The site was approved by Congress and President Bush in 2002, with shipments of nuclear waste scheduled to arrive in 2010, according to the Department of Energy. An estimated 4,300 shipments of nuclear waste may be deposited at Yucca Mountain over a 24-year period. Waste from 131 temporary storage sites in 39 states would be shipped to Yucca Mountain if approved, Citizen's Alert Field Director Hal Nelson said. The waste would pass within a half mile of 50 million people along the route. Nuclear power corporations should assume the burden of nuclear waste and build more permanent storage casks, Johnson said. This would save the federal government money and avoid the risky transportation of radioactive materials across the country. "In our experience, the Department of Energy does what it wants to do," Johnson said. "It's decided to be in charge of transportation. We don't trust the DOE." Fallon retiree Bill Jacobi attended the forum in support of the Yucca Mountain project. The transportation and storing of waste will create jobs in Nevada, he said. "Who cares in 10,000 years?" Jacobi said. "In that time, we'll be smart enough to deal with it. Humans may not even be around by then." Josh Johnson can be contacted at jjohnson@lahontanvalleynews.com [jjohnson@lahontanvalleynews.com] All contents © Copyright 2004 lahontanvalleynews.com Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle Standard - 562 North Maine Street - Fallon, NV 89406 ***************************************************************** 38 Salt Lake Tribune: Legislative bid to bar N-waste in Utah fails www.sltrib.com Article Last Updated: 10/08/2004 01:28:10 AM By Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune WASHINGTON - A bid to block nuclear waste from being stored on the Skull Valley Indian Reservation failed late Thursday as senators objected to its inclusion in a sweeping defense bill. The provision, backed by the entire Utah delegation, would have created the 100,000-acre Cedar Mountain Wilderness Area, preventing the Bureau of Land Management from approving a rail line needed to ship the highly radioactive material from nuclear reactors to the proposed facility in Utah's west desert. Rep. Rob Bishop was not conceding defeat, saying, “Until the session ends, I'm not giving up.” House members agreed to include the provision in the defense bill, but it was not part of the version that the Senate approved in July. It remained a sticking point between the two chambers, and ultimately the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner, R-Va., and the ranking Democrat, Carl Levin of Michigan, won out. The final language of the defense bill, without the Utah wilderness and test and training range provisions, is expected to be submitted this morning and approved by the House and Senate this afternoon. “Of course I'm disappointed that it's not going in,” said Rep. Jim Matheson. “This is not the end. . . . I think there still is an opportunity and I think we've got to push as hard as we can to make this happen.” While Congress plans to adjourn until after the election, several days in November. It is possible that the wilderness bill could be added to a high-priority bill. The wilderness idea was first hatched in 2001 and sponsored by Rep. Jim Hansen, but it failed amid objections from the environmental community and Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign. This time, Bishop was able to bridge differences with environmentalists, who lobbied on behalf of the bill. The Cedar Mountain Wilderness is habitat to mule deer, antelope, coyote and other wildlife. It lies beneath the Utah Test and Training Range, a sprawling Air Force training facility. Private Fuels Storage, a consortium of nuclear power generators, is seeking a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that would allow them to store as much as 40,000 tons of the nuclear fuel rods in steel and concrete casks on the Skull Valley Goshute reservation until Yucca Mountain is completed. © Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 39 NRC: NRC Sets Schedule for Review of USEC Application; Offers Opportunity to Request Participation in Hearing News Release - 2004-12 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 04-129 October 7, 2004 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has established a 30-month schedule for reviewing an application from USEC Inc., to build a gas centrifuge uranium enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio, to be known as the American Centrifuge Plant. The agency will hold a hearing on the application as part of its review and invites those who may be affected by the proceeding to seek permission to participate in the hearing. The facility would be housed in buildings and areas leased from the Department of Energy (DOE) where DOE operated similar gas centrifuge machines in the 1980s. USECs gas centrifuge technology is based on DOEs gas centrifuge technology, which USEC obtained by signing an agreement with DOE in June 2002. The NRC has determined that the application, which was submitted on Aug. 23, contains sufficient information for the agency to begin its detailed review and has formally docketed the application. A copy will be available on the NRCs Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS) using accession number ML042800551 through http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html. A copy will also be available at the NRCs Public Document Room at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md. The NRC staff will conduct a comprehensive review of the USEC application and prepare a safety evaluation report and environmental impact statement before the hearing is completed. The applicant and the NRC staff will be parties to the hearing. Any other person whose interest may be affected and who wishes to participate as a party in the hearing proceeding must file a petition to intervene within 60 days of publication of the Commissions notice and order in the Federal Register, expected shortly. The petition must be filed with the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff, with copies by fax or e-mail and to the NRC staff and applicant attorney at the addresses listed in the Federal Register notice. The petition must include the particular interest of the petitioner in the proceeding and how that interest may be affected by the results of the proceeding; a specification of the contentions, or specific issues, that the petitioner seeks to have litigated in the hearing; and other information as set out in detail in the Federal Register notice. Construction and operation of the American Centrifuge Plant, if authorized, will be preceded by a test and demonstration facility to be known as a Lead Cascade. NRC issued a license for the Lead Cascade in February, and construction of the cascade is underway in one of the buildings to be used for the full-scale plant. Last revised Friday, October 08, 2004 ***************************************************************** 40 Pahrump Valley Times: Kerry vows to shut down Yucca effort October 8, 2004 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Election Guide News, voter information RENO - Democrat John Kerry said if he is elected president, he will refuse to fund efforts crucial to the construction of Yucca Mountain to keep the nation's nuclear waste dump from being built in Nevada. "I'll guarantee you, if I'm president, Yucca Mountain is not going to happen," Kerry said Tuesday. "Nevada can take that to the bank," he told KRNV-TV in Reno on Tuesday in a satellite hookup from Tipton, Iowa. "I don't think it is safe." Kerry repeatedly has pledged to kill the high-level radioactive waste repository planned 50 miles northeast of Pahrump and 20 miles north and east of Beatty and Amargosa Valley, respectively, but Republicans argue he's powerless to do anything about it and that the federal courts ultimately will decide the fate of the project. "I have any number of ways to keep it from happening," Kerry insisted Tuesday from Iowa where he was campaigning. "First of all, in my budget, by not funding the things necessary to make it happen, that is a good place to start," he said. In addition, the Department of Transportation, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency have to approve various health and safety standards for the dump to be built, he said. "Since I will make those appointments and I will be the president, I have the ability to guarantee those signoffs don't occur," he said. Kerry, who repeated his pledge to visit Reno before Election Day, said scientific studies have raised serious concerns about the safety of Yucca Mountain. "It is too bad they have been raised late. I know money has been spent. But that doesn't mean you go do something that doesn't make sense. I don't think Nevada should be made the scapegoat dumping ground and I don't intend to do it," he said. President Bush has defended his decision to go forward with the nuclear waste dump despite it being unpopular in the swing state he won four years ago. "I said I would make a decision based upon science, not politics," Bush told a Las Vegas crowd in August. "I said I would listen to the scientists, those involved with determining whether or not this project could move forward in a safe manner and that's exactly what I did," he said. Bush said he was pleased to "allow this process to be appealed to the courts and to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission." "I will stand by the decision of the courts and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," the president said. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., is among those who think the federal courts will determine if Yucca Mountain will be built "regardless of who is the president," Ensign's spokesman Jack Finn said recently. "John Kerry says 'If I'm president, there will be no repository.' He can't make that statement. Nevadans should not believe him," Finn said. For comment or questions, please e-mail webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com [webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2004 ***************************************************************** 41 AU ABC: Major parties silent on Kakadu waste storage » [http://abc.net.au/] Friday, 8 October 2004 Both of the major parties are refusing to comment this morning on the storage of low level radioactive waste in Kakadu National Park. The waste is tailings from uranium mining and has been kept in a shipping container near a popular tourist campsite close to the South Alligator River. The ABC has sought comment from the Federal Government, the Territory Government and the managers of Kakadu - Parks Australia North. The former Territory chief minister Denis Burke is so far the only politician willing to weigh into the issue, claiming it highlights an overall lack of information on radioactive waste storage. "I've called in Parliament for the release of reports that have been done on radioactive storage in the Northern Territory because I can't recall the details, but I know that things weren't as good as they could have been," he said. "Marion Scrymgour got up in Parliament the day before yesterday and claimed that storage was perfectly in accordance with international standards, which is a lie." [ more news ] Last Updated: 9:25:00 AM (ACST) [ABC Online] [http://www.abc.net.au/common/copyrigh.htm] | ***************************************************************** 42 AU ABC: Burke slams Labor on radioactive waste border="0" alt="Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online"> [http://abc.net.au/] Friday, 8 October 2004 The Country Liberal Party says if Labor was serious about the need to protect the Northern Territory from the disposal of nuclear waste, it would have passed its anti-dump laws during the last three days of Parliament. The Federal Government has proposed a bill banning the storage of Commonwealth nuclear waste in the Territory. It was expected to be passed this week but was not debated. The CLP's Denis Burke says Labor has campaigned heavily on the issue in the seat of Solomon but failed to push ahead with its laws in Parliament. "Labor have run a lie campaign against David Tollner this whole federal election campaign," he said. "They had a chance to put through nuclear legislation to stop a dump in the Territory. "They paraded the fact that they would do it and they've had three days of sittings just before the federal election and didn't do it because they've got no intention of doing anything about their radioactive waste. "They can't store it properly but they're happy to bag Tollner who is telling the truth to Territorians." [ more news ] Last Updated: 3:05:00 PM (ACST) [http://www.abc.net.au/common/copyrigh.htm] | Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 43 Pahrump Valley Times: Yucca budget on hold until after elections October 8, 2004 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LAS VEGAS - Congress is putting off until after the presidential election a budget fight on spending for a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada. Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Pete Domenici, R-N.M., leaders of the Senate energy and water subcommittee, have been unable to agree on spending for the Yucca Mountain project. Analysts say lawmakers might also look for a signal from voters whether to continue developing the repository 50 miles northeast of Pahrump and roughly 20 miles north and east of Amargosa Valley and Beatty, respectively. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic challenger, has told voters in Nevada he would kill the Yucca program if elected. Republican President Bush backs the repository and authorized the Yucca project along with Congress in 2002. The administration has asked Congress for $880 million to continue repository work in 2005. However, Congress has balked at a provision to tap $749 million by restructuring a national nuclear waste fund. That leaves the Energy Department with $131 million to spend on the Nevada program in the fiscal year beginning Friday without making deep cuts in other energy priorities. Brian O'Connell, nuclear waste director for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, said Yucca backers might try to increase spending on nuclear waste issues if Bush wins. If Kerry wins, "Congress could go with a low number and say we need a time-out," O'Connell said. The House and Senate this week enacted temporary spending bills to keep government departments operating beyond the start of the new fiscal year. Temporary spending bills will let the Energy Department spend the same amount on the Yucca project as it spent in fiscal 2004, officials said. Lawmakers plan a lame-duck session after the Nov. 2 elections to complete work on 2005 spending and other unfinished business. For comment or questions, please e-mail webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com [webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2004 ***************************************************************** 44 Las Vegas SUN: Emergency funds sought for Nevada's fight against nuclear dump Today: October 08, 2004 at 11:38:56 PDT ASSOCIATED PRESS CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - The state Nuclear Projects Office is seeking an emergency appropriation of $1.1 million to continue its fight against the high-level nuclear waste dump that the Bush administration wants to open at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada. The request goes before the state Board of Examiners on Tuesday, which also will consider a $650,000 emergency allocation to Attorney General Brian Sandoval's office for its legal battle against the dump. Bob Loux, who heads the Nuclear Projects Office, said his budget is "tapped out" and the federal Department of Energy intends to apply in December for a building permit. The filing goes to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The state was getting $2.5 million a year from the federal government to help in the battle against Yucca Mountain, but that amount was slashed to $1 million. If the federal government submits its application in December, Loux said his office will have 90 days to review whether it is complete. The $1.1 million will carry the projects office through the end of February, but "we may have to come back for more money," he said. If the Board of Examiners, chaired by Gov. Kenny Guinn, approves the request, it goes to the Legislative Interim Finance Committee for final action. That panel meets Nov. 17. Sandoval wants the $650,000 to cover outstanding and expected litigation expenditures through February next year. The 2003 Legislature allocated $2 million to the attorney general's office for legal costs, including hiring outside lawyers, to pursue the court battle against Yucca Mountain. Half the money was spent and the rest reverted to the general treasury. State Budget Director Perry Comeaux said the attorney general's office could have carried the unused funds over from one year to the next, but didn't. Sandoval said he thought Interim Finance gave him authority last April to carry the money forward but there was a "misunderstanding." Sandoval said the $650,000 is needed because the state has sued in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. contending the federal government improperly withheld funds from the state for the nuclear budget. Arguments are set for Jan. 12. Also, he said the Nuclear Energy Institute plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a ruling that gave the state a partial victory in the waste dump fight. -- ***************************************************************** 45 Las Vegas RJ: Texas OK sought for waste Friday, October 08, 2004 Company wants to store nuclear material from Ohio THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DALLAS -- A company is seeking state permission to accept millions of pounds of radioactive waste from U.S. weapons programs. Officials in Utah and Nevada already have rejected requests from the company to take the waste, now stored at an aging U.S. Department of Energy Superfund site in Ohio. Waste Control Specialists says the material can be safely stored at the company's hazardous waste facility in Andrews County. The waste consists mainly of uranium tailings that have been encased for decades in concrete silos in Ohio. The company has filed applications with the Texas Department of State Health Services. One would amend its current state license to expand the volume of hazardous material that can be stored by 1.5 million cubic feet. The other seeks permission to accept uranium tailings, material left from the processing of uranium ore for nuclear weapons and defense projects, The Dallas Morning News reported Thursday. Environmental groups oppose the applications. "There's a reason why both Utah and Nevada would not accept this stuff. It's very dangerous," said Margot Clark, outreach coordinator for the state chapter of the Sierra Club. "We don't think Texas should become a dumping site for waste from weapons development. Besides that, the Waste Control Specialists facility has never dealt with this kind of waste before." Attorney Mike Woodward, who represents the company, said the uranium tailings that would be stored carry little risk. "It is far less dangerous than much of the hazardous material being moved around the country regularly," he said, noting that it is less active than most types of low-level nuclear waste. He said the company had not secured a contract with the Energy Department to take the waste. "Our facility in Andrews County would be a very appropriate spot. It is located away from population centers and water. The geology is very stable, and the climate is very dry." Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 46 Tri-City Herald: River corridor cleanup bids submitted This story was published Friday, October 8th, 2004 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer At least three teams of contractors submitted proposals by the Thursday deadline to bid on a contract for cleaning up the Hanford river corridor. All include contractors that have bid on the project before, but new alliances have been formed. In April 2003, the Department of Energy awarded the contract, but the award was overturned by the end of the year in a successful protest. The contract would cover work to clean up radioactive and hazardous materials. The cost is estimated to be about $3 billion to clean up and close Hanford's 210-square-mile Columbia River corridor. Work would include continuing to demolish and seal up eight old nuclear reactors along the river at the northern end of Hanford and the cleanup of the industrial 300 Area along the river at the south end of the Hanford complex. Washington Group International said Thursday that it had submitted a bid proposal as the lead contractor with Bechtel and CH2M Hill. In 2002, Washington Group teamed with Fluor Federal Services and Earth Tech to submit what was named the winning bid in 2003. That bid was successfully challenged by another team -- Bechtel National and CH2M Hill, which have now joined with Washington Group -- on the grounds that it was based on unrealistic cost calculations. Bechtel National already has the $5.7 billion contract to build the Hanford vitrification plant to treat radioactive tank wastes, and Bechtel Hanford holds the expiring contract to clean up the river shore. CH2M Hill Hanford Group operates the nuclear reservation's tank farms -- groups of huge underground tanks holding radioactive waste from production of plutonium at Hanford for the nation's nuclear weapons program. The second group to announce it had submitted a proposal for the river corridor cleanup project was Fluor Corp. Employees of Fluor Hanford, the primary management contractor for Hanford, were sent a memo Thursday confirming that Fluor was bidding on the project. The third group is led by Tetra Tech FW, based in Pasadena, Calif., which has teamed with Entergy. Tetra Tech FW also was a bidder on the river corridor contract in 2003. The soonest a winner would be announced is late January, but discussions with bidders are likely to delay that. © 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 47 [du-list] DU in the news - 9th Oct 04 Date: Fri, 08 Oct 2004 17:40:29 -0700 The Galloway News, Fri, 08 Oct 2004 5:58 AM PDT ic Dumfries - NHS Consultant dismisses cancer cover up claims http://icdumfries.icnetwork.co.uk/news/localnews/gallowaynews/gallowaynews/tm_objectid=14734207%26method=full%26siteid=77296%26headline=nhs%2dconsultant%2ddismisses%2dcancer%2dcover%2dup%2dclaims-name_page.html A LEADING public health specialist has dismissed speculation about the increased risk of people developing cancer in coastal areas of the Stewartry. Two investigations in the last four years into cancer levels in one particular area revealed no evidence of any undue risk. Venezuela Electronic News, Fri, 08 Oct 2004 3:02 AM PDT Franz J. T. Lee: DIANA versus HAARP http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=23055 University of Los Andes (ULA) professor Franz J. T. Lee writes: Over the last years, we have continually informed our readers about the USA's gigantic war projects and other metropolitan powers against humanity, about their bellicose production of arms of mass destruction (WMD'S), of their ABCDE ... weapons. San Francisco Bay View, Thu, 07 Oct 2004 1:38 PM PDT Five admirals, Carlyle Group and Rand take over http://www.sfbayview.com/100604/nuclearweapons100604.shtml SAIC (Science Applications International Corp.), a Pentagon-connected company involved in voting machines (Sequoia, Diebold etc.), controlling the internet (Network Solutions) and training foreign militaries, also had contracts to develop information systems for the Pentagon, FBI and IRS. The Tribune, Thu, 07 Oct 2004 2:00 PM PDT Nuclear-powered aircraft http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20041008/science.htm A FTER more than 60 years of research, the first nuclear powered aircraft is cleared for its take off. In place of conventional jet fuel, the nuclear energy will propel the aircraft. Using this power, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle could remain on station for months. Venezuela Electronic News, Thu, 07 Oct 2004 3:57 PM PDT Malcolm Donald: It is surely the duty of everyone to search for alternative news http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=23054 For myself, I am still being educated in the 'University of Life.' At an early age I realized that the UK state system only educated me on the basics, namely, reading writing and arithmetic. History and current affairs were biased to a UK corporate perspective. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 48 Fwd: Air Force pursuing antimatter weapons / Program was touted Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 23:41:31 -0500 (CDT) From: EF! Media Center Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 11:20:48 -0700 Subject: [Crisis!] Air Force pursuing antimatter weapons / Program was touted publicly, then came official gag order http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/04/MNGM393GPK1.DTL&type=printable <>Air Force pursuing antimatter weapons Program was touted publicly, then came official gag order - Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer Monday, October 4, 2004 The U.S. Air Force is quietly spending millions of dollars investigating ways to use a radical power source -- antimatter, the eerie "mirror" of ordinary matter -- in future weapons. The most powerful potential energy source presently thought to be available to humanity, antimatter is a term normally heard in science-fiction films and TV shows, whose heroes fly "antimatter-powered spaceships" and do battle with "antimatter guns." But antimatter itself isn't fiction; it actually exists and has been intensively studied by physicists since the 1930s. In a sense, matter and antimatter are the yin and yang of reality: Every type of subatomic particle has its antimatter counterpart. But when matter and antimatter collide, they annihilate each other in an immense burst of energy. During the Cold War, the Air Force funded numerous scientific studies of the basic physics of antimatter. With the knowledge gained, some Air Force insiders are beginning to think seriously about potential military uses -- for example, antimatter bombs small enough to hold in one's hand, and antimatter engines for 24/7 surveillance aircraft. More cataclysmic possible uses include a new generation of super weapons -- either pure antimatter bombs or antimatter-triggered nuclear weapons; the former wouldn't emit radioactive fallout. Another possibility is antimatter- powered "electromagnetic pulse" weapons that could fry an enemy's electric power grid and communications networks, leaving him literally in the dark and unable to operate his society and armed forces. Following an initial inquiry from The Chronicle this summer, the Air Force forbade its employees from publicly discussing the antimatter research program. Still, details on the program appear in numerous Air Force documents distributed over the Internet prior to the ban. These include an outline of a March 2004 speech by an Air Force official who, in effect, spilled the beans about the Air Force's high hopes for antimatter weapons. On March 24, Kenneth Edwards, director of the "revolutionary munitions" team at the Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida was keynote speaker at the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) conference in Arlington, Va. In that talk, Edwards discussed the potential uses of a type of antimatter called positrons. Physicists have known about positrons or "antielectrons" since the early 1930s, when Caltech scientist Carl Anderson discovered a positron flying through a detector in his laboratory. That discovery, and the later discovery of "antiprotons" by Berkeley scientists in the 1950s, upheld a 1920s theory of antimatter proposed by physicist Paul Dirac. In 1929, Dirac suggested that the building blocks of atoms -- electrons (negatively charged particles) and protons (positively charged particles) -- have antimatter counterparts: antielectrons and antiprotons. One fundamental difference between matter and antimatter is that their subatomic building blocks carry opposite electric charges. Thus, while an ordinary electron is negatively charged, an antielectron is positively charged (hence the term positrons, which means "positive electrons"); and while an ordinary proton is positively charged, an antiproton is negative. The real excitement, though, is this: If electrons or protons collide with their antimatter counterparts, they annihilate each other. In so doing, they unleash more energy than any other known energy source, even thermonuclear bombs. The energy from colliding positrons and antielectrons "is 10 billion times ... that of high explosive," Edwards explained in his March speech. Moreover, 1 gram of antimatter, about 1/25th of an ounce, would equal "23 space shuttle fuel tanks of energy." Thus "positron energy conversion," as he called it, would be a "revolutionary energy source" of interest to those who wage war. It almost defies belief, the amount of explosive force available in a speck of antimatter -- even a speck that is too small to see. For example: One millionth of a gram of positrons contain as much energy as 37.8 kilograms (83 pounds) of TNT, according to Edwards' March speech. A simple calculation, then, shows that about 50-millionths of a gram could generate a blast equal to the explosion (roughly 4,000 pounds of TNT, according to the FBI) at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Unlike regular nuclear bombs, positron bombs wouldn't eject plumes of radioactive debris. When large numbers of positrons and antielectrons collide, the primary product is an invisible but extremely dangerous burst of gamma radiation. Thus, in principle, a positron bomb could be a step toward one of the military's dreams from the early Cold War: a so-called "clean" superbomb that could kill large numbers of soldiers without ejecting radioactive contaminants over the countryside. A copy of Edwards' speech onNIAC's Web site emphasizes this advantage of positron weapons in bright red letters: "No Nuclear Residue." But talk of "clean" superbombs worries critics. " 'Clean' nuclear weapons are more dangerous than dirty ones because they are more likely to be used," said an e-mail from science historian George Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., author of "Project Orion," a 2002 study on a Cold War-era attempt to design a nuclear spaceship. Still, Dyson adds, antimatter weapons are "a long, long way off." Why so far off? One reason is that at present, there's no fast way to mass produce large amounts of antimatter from particle accelerators. With present techniques, the price tag for 100-billionths of a gram of antimatter would be $6 billion, according to an estimate by scientists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and elsewhere, who hope to launch antimatter-fueled spaceships. Another problem is the terribly unruly behavior of positrons whenever physicists try to corral them into a special container. Inside these containers, known as Penning traps, magnetic fields prevent the antiparticles from contacting the material wall of the container -- lest they annihilate on contact. Unfortunately, because like-charged particles repel each other, the positrons push each other apart and quickly squirt out of the trap. If positrons can't be stored for long periods, they're as useless to the military as an armored personnel carrier without a gas tank. So Edwards is funding investigations of ways to make positrons last longer in storage. Edwards' point man in that effort is Gerald Smith, former chairman of physics and Antimatter Project leader at Pennsylvania State University. Smith now operates a small firm, Positronics Research LLC, in Santa Fe, N.M. So far, the Air Force has given Smith and his colleagues $3.7 million for positron research, Smith told The Chronicle in August. Smith is looking to store positrons in a quasi-stable form called positronium. A positronium "atom" (as physicists dub it) consists of an electron and antielectron, orbiting each other. Normally these two particles would quickly collide and self-annihilate within a fraction of a second -- but by manipulating electrical and magnetic fields in their vicinity, Smith hopes to make positronium atoms last much longer. Smith's storage effort is the "world's first attempt to store large quantities of positronium atoms in a laboratory experiment," Edwards noted in his March speech. "If successful, this approach will open the door to storing militarily significant quantities of positronium atoms." Officials at Eglin Air Force Base initially agreed enthusiastically to try to arrange an interview with Edwards. "We're all very excited about this technology," spokesman Rex Swenson at Eglin's Munitions Directorate told The Chronicle in late July. But Swenson backed out in August after he was overruled by higher officials in the Air Force and Pentagon. Reached by phone in late September, Edwards repeatedly declined to be interviewed. His superiors gave him "strict instructions not to give any interviews personally. I'm sorry about that -- this (antimatter) project is sort of my grandchild. ... "(But) I agree with them (that) we're just not at the point where we need to be doing any public interviews." Air Force spokesman Douglas Karas at the Pentagon also declined to comment last week. In the meantime, the Air Force has been investigating the possibility of making use of a powerful positron-generating accelerator under development at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. One goal: to see if positrons generated by the accelerator can be stored for long periods inside a new type of "antimatter trap" proposed by scientists, including Washington State physicist Kelvin Lynn, head of the school's Center for Materials Research. A new generation of military explosives is worth developing, and antimatter might fill the bill, Lynn told The Chronicle: "If we spend another $10 billion (using ordinary chemical techniques), we're going to get better high explosives, but the gains are incremental because we're getting near the theoretical limits of chemical energy." Besides, Lynn is enthusiastic about antimatter because he believes it could propel futuristic space rockets. "I think," he said, "we need to get off this planet, because I'm afraid we're going to destroy it." E-mail Keay Davidson at kdavidson@sfchronicle.com . Page A - 1 URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/04/MNGM393GPK1.DTL ------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Peace! *STRIDER* Sector Air Raid Warden at /RENEGADE/ http://fornits.com/renegade/ DEDICATED TO SPIRIT, TRUTH, PEACE, JUSTICE, AND FREEDOM Articles posted in the last 10 days: http://fornits.com/renegade/peaars.cgi?search=Search&increment=days&many=10 Bay_Area_Activist list ---- Membership by invitation only - moderated / archives for members only Contact bay_area_activist-owner@yahoogroups.com to request membership. EF! list --------------- earthfirstalert - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/earthfirstalert List-Subscribe: usenet: news:misc.activism.progressive e-mail: mailto:strider@fornits.com strider@fornits.com No War! No Nukes! Impeach! WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION -- Ethiopian Proverb ***************************************************************** 49 [DU-WATCH] Articles on depleted uranium Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2004 00:16:17 -0500 (CDT) http://cuttingedge.org/news/depleted-uranium.html DEPLETED URANIUM "Congressman Dennis Kucinich Deplores Use of D.U. See Video On His Presidential Campaign Website" "Depleted Uranium: Ethics of the "Silver Bullet" TV Interview Video of Two American Servicemen Reveals Terrible Truth About Depleted Uranium THE PENTAGON IS DENYING MEDICAL CARE FOR VETERANS STRICKEN BY DEPLETED URANIUM (D.U.) CONTAMINATION! Congressman Dennis Kucinich calls upon the Federal Government to fully fund D.U. care. However, to do so would mean that the Federal Government would have to acknowledge the problem and legally face their negligence in sending American servicemen into battle equipped with radioactive weapons which will kill more of them than any enemy on any battlefield! IS THE DEPLETED URANIUM (D.U.) SCANDAL FINALLY ABOUT TO BREAK INTO PUBLIC MASS MEDIA? Democrat Congressman Dennis Kucinich ran a D.U. video on his website during his recent campaign for President. If the D.U. story breaks after President Bush is nominated for re-election, his campaign could be severely damaged. Voters might "storm the White House" if they realized that every one of their loved ones fighting in this war will eventually die from D.U. poisoning, as will many wives and girlfriends! How many D.U. deformed babies will it take before this President is exposed? View a most dynamic video from the Presidential campaign of Dennis Kucinich as he warns of Depleted Uranium and its fatal effects on both American soldiers and the Iraqi civilian population. Pertinent quote for this article: "Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy." - Henry Kissinger, quoted in "Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POW's in Vietnam" AMERICAN SOLDIERS ARE ILL AND DYING OF "MYSTERIOUS ILLNESS" -- IS IT DEPLETED URANIUM POISONING? The answer is a qualified "Yes!" American troops are beginning to show symptoms of Depleted Uranium poisoning, a situation being magnified by the heat in which they are operating. >From Gulf War I, fully 75% of our fighting men who were on the ground are now dead, dying, or sick from Depleted Uranium. PRESIDENT BUSH'S NUCLEAR WARS AGAINST AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ NOW CONFIRMED! New York Daily News has broken the D.U. story on their Sunday front page, and it confirms what Cutting Edge has been saying for almost one year about Depleted Uranium! Four of nine American soldiers recently returned from Iraq suffering "unknown illnesses" turned to New York Daily News for help. Independent lab testing revealed four of nine soldiers were contaminated with Depleted Uranium poisoning! The Army is scrambling to protect its entire backside! ANCIENT BABYLON CITY SITE IS SERIOUSLY CONTAMINATED WITH DEPLETED URANIUM - POLLUTION LASTS FOR 4.5 BILLION YEARS Research shows that the city site of Ancient Babylon is so polluted with Depleted Uranium poisoning it is highly likely no one will ever be able to live there again. No technology is currently proven that can remove D.U. poisoning. "And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 20 It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation." [Isaiah 13:19-20] IRAQI CHILDREN UNDER FAR WORSE CONDITIONS THAN UNDER SADDAM! DEPLETED URANIUM SICKENING THE POPULATION!! "Every child in Iraq had a degree of psychological trauma ... Women in Basra are afraid to become pregnant because there are so many deformed babies ... We are leaving a deadly legacy for generations to come." First news story which reports that the population is getting sick and dying. FORMER MARINE RECENTLY RETURNED FROM IRAQ CONFIRMS FROM FIRST-HAND WITNESS WHAT CUTTING EDGE HAS BEEN TEACHING ABOUT THIS IRAQ WAR! A hard-core, gung-ho, 12-year career Marine chose to quit the Corps upon returning, foregoing money or benefits because he was so convicted about our deliberate killing of civilians, our usage of Depleted Uranium and our personnel-killing cluster bombs in the Iraq war. His personal testimony verifies the essence of long-term Cutting Edge teaching about this war. FOX TV (FX) AIRS MOVIE, "MELTDOWN" IN WHICH BASIC STORY LINE REVOLVES AROUND DEPLETED URANIUM POISONING (D.U.) OF OUR OWN SOLDIERS! "Terrorists" who take over a nuclear power plant are discovered to be former Delta Force commandos who have seized the plant because they are angry at the U.S. Government -- Each of them is dying from Depleted Uranium poisoning from our own munitions! Visit the Archives for older articles. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/Sj.0lB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 50 DAWN: N-seawater suggested for desalination - 08 October, 2004 [http://dawn.com By Ihtashamul Haque ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) has suggested the use of nuclear seawater desalination technology to overcome the growing shortage of water for industrial, agricultural and domestic use in the country. Seawater desalination is considered to be a viable option especially for Karachi and the coastal belt as it was being successfully used in Japan and Kazakhstan for many years. Official sources told Dawn here on Thursday that in view of the water shortage in Karachi, the government had accepted a PAEC proposal to set up a Nuclear Desalination Demonstration Plant (NDDP) having a 4,800 m3/d (1.267 million US Gallons per day) capacity. The plant would initially cost Rs590 million which would be mainly borne by the Sindh government for getting the desalination plant designed and manufactured at Karachi by hiring the services of foreign consultants. The main objective of the project is to acquire the emerging technology of using nuclear energy for desalination of seawater/ brackish water and to attain an adequate know-how and experience in the design, manufacturing, operation and maintenance of a desalination plant which can be used in the installation of big thermal desalination plants in the future. The PAEC is of the view that smaller units will also be needed as the development of coastal belt has started with the coastal highway. So by acquiring the Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) technology for desalination, expertise in this technology will be developed which can be used in future to locally provide a highly dependable source of portable water to Karachi in particular and other parts along the coastal belt in general. The PAEC believes that once the plant starts operation, there is a large scope for export of desalination equipment/plants to the neighbouring countries. It is said that the water demand would increase by manifold in the coming decades and won't be addressed by relying on limited and unreliable ground resources. Karachi alone is facing a shortfall of about 175 millions gallons per day (MGD). The PAEC officials are of the view that nuclear desalination is a viable option that can play a significant role in bridging the gap between the supply and demand of drinking water across Pakistan. The Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) plant has been selected for desalination considering the extraction steam conditions to be used as thermal energy resource for desalination and due to significant advantages of MED process over other desalination processes. © The DAWN Group of Newspapers, 2004 ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************